OTHELLO. To 10 May.
Tour/London.
OTHELLO
by William Shakespeare.
Northern Broadsides Tour to 10 May 2009.
Runs 3hr 5min One interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 28 April at New Vic Theatre Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Othello, Iago and their wives triumph in Barrie Rutter’s latest Broadside.
Not quite the clown playing Hamlet, Lenny Henry certainly brings Othello a sense of vocal command. When jealous he’s not someone you’d want to be on the wrong side of, while his final realisation of what’s been going on is subtly expressive.
His posture might initially seem artificial. But Henry’s Othello develops through the play. Broadsides’ manner focuses, sometimes to advantage, on sturdy storytelling rather than verbal subtlety, and this Othello is at least as good as many of the surrounding performances.
There’s an element of care even as he strangles the wife he thinks has betrayed him. His preceding anger is born of emotional ingenuousness. And he’s excellent in the scenes with Iago.
Conrad Nelson’s Iago really is everyone’s friend, employing a range of matey gestures. He can do eager attention, casual chat, and – as when he swears lifelong devotion to Othello - the screwed-face intensity of the mendacious schoolboy so pained the dog ate his homework. Finally found out, he lies curled, laughing like a malicious foetus.
Unsurprisingly, Iago’s a domestic bully. His friendliness dies when he talks to his wife. From the start Maeve Larkin’s Emilia stands stiffly, hating his diatribe against women, which others take for humour. Only her dropping the coat he’s neglected to take from her seems more theatrical gesture than dramatically consistent, at odds with her keenness to find his loving side.
Larkin contrasts the Desdemona of Jessica Harris in more than hair colour. Harris’s blonde Desdemona is still a girl, fresh from a protected childhood, passing from one father-figure to another. She’s happy, laughing and impulsive, till Othello’s anger makes her a cowering, flinching figure.
The evening’s played on bare-boards. Too bare at times; the notably successful scenes between Othello and Iago introduce charts with which Iago seems preoccupied and other scenes might be helped by some furnishings. But the boards serve well in two fine action scenes, Nelson’s drinking-song and the Kate Waters-choreographed fight.
There’s a devastating moment when Iago comfortingly hugs the tearful woman he’s trying to destroy, while his wife denounces whoever’s been telling lies about her. No wonder Emilia will freeze mid-gesture when she finds out who that is.
Iago: Conrad Nelson.
Roderigo: Matt Connor.
Brabantio: Barrie Rutter.
Othello: Lenny Henry.
Cassio: Richard Standing.
Duke/Gratiano: Fine Time Fontayne.
Senator/Lodovico: Simon Holland Roberts.
Desdemona: Jessica Harris.
Montano: Andy Cryer.
Emilia: Maeve Larkin.
Herald: Chris Pearce.
Bianca: Rachel Jane Allen.
Director: Barrie Rutter.
Designer: Ruari Murchison.
Lighting: Guy Hoare.
Composer: Conrad Nelson.
Costume: Stephen Snell.
Voice coach: Bardy Thomas.
Fight director: Kate Waters.
Knife-throwing coach: John Taylor.
Assistant director: Chris Hill.
2009-04-29 12:55:58