OTHELLO:
SHAKESPEARE IN AMERICA INITIATIVE
Written by William Shakespeare; an Aquila Theatre Company of London
Production; created and produced by Peter Meineck; adapted and directed by
Robert Richmond; music composition and musical direction by Anthony
Cochrane; production design and lighting design by Peter Meineck; associate
ensemble direction by Anthony Cochrane
With: Lloyd Notice (Othello), Anthony Cochrane (Iago), Kathryn Merry
(Desdemona), Tom Tate (Cassio), Jay Liebowitz (Roderigo), Tracey Mitchell (Emilia),
Michelle Hillen (Bianca), David DelGrosso (Duke of Venice; and Gratiano, a
Senator of Venice), Nick Hetherington (Brabantio, Montano, and Lodivico)
Performed September 24, 2003, at Maine Center for the Arts in Orono, Maine
Reviewed by Joel Johnson
The National Endowment for the Arts has embarked on a very ambitious program
to deliver Shakespeare throughout the United States through its Shakespeare
in American Communities Initiative. Six companies have contracts to tour
during 2003-04, performing Romeo & Juliet, Richard III, A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, and Othello. The Aquila Theatre Company of London
(a nonprofit theater company based in New York as well as in London) is one of
the companies. Their production of Othello reviewed here is one of
the early performances during its tour. The same ensemble is also performing
an adaptation of Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King.
Shakespeare has been performed in countless settings over the four hundred
plus years that there have been Shakespeare’s plays. This production is
performed in modern dress with the sights and sounds of Venice’s war in
Cyprus (the play’s backdrop) eerily familiar due to our two recent conflicts
with Iraq. The military conflict is, of course, fairly peripheral to the
other issues the play addresses: love, envy, jealousy, trust, racism, and
violence. These all play out in a domestic situation that has public
ramifications. This type of situation would have been very familiar for
audiences in Tudor England. Although adultery by the wife of the King is no
longer punished as treason, as it was during the reign of King Henry VIII,
Othello’s pain due to suspicions of his wife’s unfaithfulness is easily
grasped. That this pain leads him to destroy the source of his own happiness
is the ultimate tragedy and why the play bears his name. Otherwise, the play
could as easily be named for Iago, the viciously clever architect of
Othello’s tragedy.
Iago (Anthony Cochrane) is the malevolent engine that drives this play,
manipulating several key characters in addition to Othello. Mr. Cochrane, a
native of Scotland, plays Iago as a man deeply resentful that his service
has led him close to but not to power. Belying his appearance as a loyal
ordinary overstuffed sergeant, Cochrane’s Iago is a malignant Machiavellian
who targets Othello with little or no regard for anyone who might suffer
because of his actions.
Othello (Lloyd Notice) is poisoned by the lies Iago tells and those
delivered by his unwitting accomplices. A passionate lover and confident
leader at the play’s outset, Mr. Notice must let Iago’s toxins gradually
corrupt his character into becoming an overwrought, spiteful cuckold and,
ultimately, a bitter and bereft fool. Mr. Notice, a native of Nottingham,
England, accomplishes this transformation quite effectively.
Desdemona (Kathryn Merry) must be seen as capable of inspiring Othello’s
great passions and must embody a strength of character as she maintains
innocent loyalty to her friend Cassio, who is viciously maligned by Iago and
becomes Othello’s “proof” of Desdemona’s adulterous guilt. The beautiful
young actress Kathryn Merry easily inspires admiration and gives her
character a textured personality that makes her fate truly tragic.
Emilia (Tracey Mitchell) and Bianca (Michelle Hillen), the play’s other
women, are key secondary roles. Emilia, Iago’s wife, is both his most
crucial accomplice, delivering to him the handkerchief that will become the
most damning evidence against Desdemona, and Desdemona’s most passionate
defender. Ms. Mitchell makes the most of her deeply wrought scenes near the
end, exposing her husband’s treachery. Casting a black woman as Emilia makes
race less the play’s central theme than it does in productions in which
Othello is the sole black cast member. Ms. Hillen uses her singing voice to
entertain the play’s soldiers and the audience alike. She also plays Bianca,
a courtesan smitten with the charming Cassio (Tom Tate), who inadvertently
helps malign both the suspected adulteress Desdemona and Cassio, her
purported lover.
The Aquila Theatre Company features a combined British and American cast
with impressive credits in theater, television, and film. The talent and
professional experience shows. Maine theater fans might, however, remember
cast member David DelGrosso who has previously performed with The Theater at
Monmouth. The production benefits from very effective use of music and
lighting for which actor Anthony Cochrane and Aquila Theatre founder Peter
Meineck demonstrate multiple talents. The adaptation by director Robert
Richmond is economical, using just nine cast members in twelve individual
roles. Shakespeare had created thirteen separate roles, and with various
soldiers, senators, sailors, messengers, gentlemen, officers, musicians, and
attendants potentially appearing onstage, a large number of players could be
utilized. The performance’s weakness includes some difficulty in
understanding the dialogue. Archaic English from four centuries ago is
always a bit challenging and the relatively large venue might have presented
some acoustic challenges. Some audience members suspected that our location
could be an acoustic “dead spot,” as others in different locations had no
complaints about hearing the dialogue. This is the type of challenge that
afflicts touring players performing in different venues night after night.
The problem of an occasional errant exit is similarly a pitfall of working
in unfamiliar theaters. These are rather minor complaints about an otherwise
worthy production. These types of problems are likely to be ironed out with
additional practice in dealing with new performance spaces.
The National Endowment for the Arts has commissioned these theater companies
to bring Shakespeare to our communities the way it was intended to be
experienced: brought to life through staged performance. Make sure that you, your
friends, your children, and your schools take advantage of this opportunity.
