Othello Globe Theatre London
July 31st 2018
This production was announced as being a slightly shortened version – not heavily cut I understand but I do not know the text well enough to be able to judge what was missing. The reason given for this was to show theatrically how rapidly events unfolded and this was effectively established from the very opening where the scene between Iago and Roderigo had them both frantically pacing – running almost – all-round the stage. This well conveyed Roderigo’s neurotic agitation and his general sense of helplessness. He came over a a rather gormless public schoolboy, in the first throes of what he believes to be true mature passion and Iago’s occasional mocking glances at him did tend to confirm that I thought.
Iago (Mark Rylance!!) was superbly well established physically and vocally by from the very start.. Rylance’s diction was superb but often delivered very quickly and almost in a throwaway manner as if he did not really think that what he was saying was significant – which of course played very well into all those to whom he spoke. I never had the sense of Iago as a conscious manipulator or master Machiavel. There was almost an element of meaningless (nihilism) in what he was doing and of course, this fitted in well with his final words. Physically he was very unappealing. He had a small mean and shrunken face, somewhat rat-like and with a rather ‘petty’ moustache and his rapid almost twitchy movements played well into this suggestion. He scuttled around people and the stage, often seemingly dismissive of what he had just said, suggesting that it was not that important – and this technique worked horribly effectively on Othello but also with others. I felt that he had air of failure about him, someone whom life and opportunities had coldly and dismissively passed by. This was an interesting way of taking the character and was very different from one other interpretation (NT/Rory Kinnear?) where the class differences between Othello (born officer class) and Iago (NCO/risen through the ranks) were a central conceit. Finally, I saw him as a rather pathetic figure, both irritating and under-estimated by all who encountered him.
Desdemona (Jessica Warbeck) came across as very passionately in love but without much awareness or emotional intelligence. Difficult to explain why I felt this and would be interesting to hear of another viewer’s thoughts on this particular point. Emilia (Sheila Atim) was a much sharper-edged character – although again, perhaps like D, not so emotionally intelligent bearing in my how she was deceived by her husband. Her moment of realisation – an earth-shattering one- was exceptionally powerful.
Andree Holland was a nobly fine Othello. He moved slowly, notably on his first entrance, which effectively helped to establish understated power and contrasted him markedly with Iago. His voice was smoothly rich and he, to my ears, sounded more American, particularly as the play progressed. Some critics have said that he did not capture the ‘music’ of Othello but I disagree – and one element of that is Othello’s self-dramatizing (self-pitying?) streak. In this production though I did not feel that that was a central part of the portrayal but this was not a flaw in the performance of Holland. I wonder if this was deliberate as it did help to establish him as something of an outsider (though not solely race qv) and this became more apparent as the play progressed and he became more isolated form those he was previously a part of. This was very much what Iago did – he managed to pull Othello away from the people who loved and supported him so that he was left on his own with no other emotional support other than the malign Iago.
The spare Elizabethan style set (only small furniture and props) was very effective and added to the slick speediness of the production. The brawl was excellently done and I liked the discreetly effective use of two dancers in the ensemble 9particularly at the ending.
The final point to reference is race (a central theme it seems of this year’s season at the Globe). The programme reminded us that Venice at this time was very racially diverse. This aspect was shown in this production with Brabantio have a mixed-race household – which made his racism all the more poisonous and gave it a particularly nasty edge. Othello was not seen as a racial outsider in this production I think except perhaps by the older generation embodied in Brabantio. The two gender changes were fine (Doge and Lodovico to female and I had the reaction ‘and why not’. No big statement was being made I felt.
A very fine production and a great introduction to the Globe experience – loved the closeness and actor/audience interplay – at times very funny.
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on-2018/othello