By Louise
Link: https://americanshakespearecenter.com/events/othello
Available until: You can buy this on
its own or in a package with A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Twelfth
Night or you can buy all 3 together at a discount which sounds like buy 2,
get 1 free. If you buy a package, you have two weeks to watch it. I’m not sure
about if you only buy one.
A lot of theatre companies don’t just
put on plays – they have their own identity as a theatre. A big part of the
American Shakespeare Center’s identity seems to be music. They performed songs
in character both at the start of the play and during the interval.
They are all brilliant singers and musicians, they make interesting song choices and I am awed by how much energy they all have. Othello is such a demanding play, you’d think they’d all want to go and have a rest in the interval, but the cast of Othello kept entertaining us! They really are very talented and very generous to their audience and it’s really lovely.
Othello was performed in the same beautiful venue as A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Blackfriars Playhouse. Although it is a
tragedy, director Ethan McSweeny brings out the humour in the piece, even with
characters who aren’t usually funny like Desdemona. It works really well
because it shows the characters were happy in their personal lives till Iago
came along.
Othello is played by Jessika D.
Williams who I saw earlier today in Red Bull Theater’s The African
Shakespeare Company Presents Richard III and she was brilliant in that too.
I’m used to forgetting when a male Shakespeare role is played by a female
actor, but Ms Williams is so good, I not only accepted her Othello as a man,
there was something in my brain that thought Ms Williams was a man too. Her
vocal and physical mannerisms are completely stereotypically male and look very
natural.
Most importantly, Ms Williams also gave
a very good performance. Her Othello strides about the stage and shouts. It’s
not a version of Othello I’m used to seeing, but it is a valid interpretation
because this Othello is every inch the General. It’s very clear why he’s risen
up the ranks and been awarded with such a high position. He is confident and
commanding.
If it weren’t for Iago’s manipulation,
he would have been a good role model. There is a lot of racism in Othello
and some people say that Shakespeare is racist, but I think Shakespeare is
showing us how competent, intelligent and respected Othello is and that it
needed a really clever and twisted personality to bring him down. It’s also not
just Othello who Iago manipulates in the play. He does the same to Desdemona,
Emilia, Cassio and Roderigo. But he has to work a lot harder to fool Othello.
John Harrell is an interesting Iago. He
is usually played in a very sneaky way and you can see and feel the evil in his
face and in his voice. But Mr Harrell makes him seem friendly and chatty. His
manipulation is very casual and he makes all his requests and orders sound
completely reasonable. It is very easy, even when you’re a viewer who’s seen
the play before, to find yourself actually liking Mr Harrell’s Iago. He seems
like a very pleasant man.
But in this production, Othello isn’t
the only character of colour. Emilia and Cassio are BAME too. A lot of people
think Iago is racist and that that’s partly why he hates Othello so much and I
think that viewpoint actually works even better if Cassio is a man of colour
too. Cassio doesn’t just seem to be the guy who happened to get in Iago’s way.
Iago really seems to hate him. Also, at the end (spoiler alert), Cassio is
given Othello’s job and if he’s a man of colour too, it’s clear nobody’s
thinking that the colour of Othello’s skin was anything to do with him being a
bad governor.
Brandon Carter plays Cassio as a bit
of a lad. He treats his relationship with Bianca like a joke and he is
inconsiderate and demanding. I suppose in some ways he’s always like that, but
Mr Carter brings out that side to him a lot more than other actors. I found him
less likeable than usual, but I thought it was a very interesting and valid way
to play the role. I really like the fact Cassio has very obvious flaws and it
makes me think maybe Iago had a point. Maybe choosing Cassio to be lieutenant wasn’t
the best idea. (Not that Iago really shows himself as lieutenant material
either.)
Emilia is played by Constance Swain
who is also the fight captain. She is a much stronger character than a lot of
Emilias, she is confident and she is even flirtatious. I really like the
relationship between her and Desdemona. Desdemona seems to treat her like an
equal. But Iago definitely doesn’t. Apart from being nice to Othello – which is
obviously not genuine – and pretending to be Cassio’s friend, Iago doesn’t show
respect for any of the people of colour. Though if you think about it, he doesn’t
respect anyone else either.
I shouldn’t really have taken so long
to mention Desdemona. It seemed natural to talk about the characters I’d
already mentioned, but Mia Wurgaft, who also played Helena in American
Shakespeare’s Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is really brilliant
as Desdemona. I love the humour she brings to the role and the fact that she
spends a lot of the early part of the play relaxing and having fun. She’s still
a really kind Desdemona, but she’s not too saintly. When she realises things have
gone badly wrong with Othello, she becomes more emotional and she is really
good then too. The way she tries to understand Othello and refuses to say bad
things about him feels like a strength, not a weakness.
Zoe Speas is very funny as Roderigo.
He is very hapless and quite silly, but I don’t think he’s a bad person. Sarah
Suzuki who plays Bianca is another actor I have seen performing with Red Bull
Theater. She played a very shy and serious character in that play, but she is
completely different as Bianca. She is fiery and it’s funny when she shouts at
Cassio, but she also seems to like him a lot which is sad as he obviously
doesn’t care about her. It doesn’t surprise me that actors are versatile, but a
lot of actors get typecast and play similar roles all the time so it’s nice
when that doesn’t happen.
There have been a lot of good Othellos
in lockdown, but this is definitely another one to add to the list.
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