OTHELLO. To 22 November.

Northampton.

OTHELLO
by William Shakespeare adapted by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett.

Frantic Assembly tour to 22 November 2008.
Runs 1hr 45min No interval.
Review: Ian Spiby 9 October at Royal Theatre Northampton.

A viscerally exciting adaption of Shakespeare’s play.

It is difficult in a few words to do justice to Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett’s brilliant adaptation. Inspired by Nick Davies’ book, Dark Heart about the underbelly of contemporary British society, it is set in a run-down Northern pub amidst a bleak urban landscape where gangs and gang-warfare are the norm.

The excellent setting by Laura Hopkins is dominated by a pool table and a fruit machine to which characters drift as a default option. The walls, while opening out occasionally to reveal a graffiti-covered wall amidst a wasteland, at other times move and throb. They shrink back with Othello, as if aghast at the murder he has just committed and pulsate chaotically to reflect Cassio’s drunken fighting.

The text is reduced to about half of the original, while the movement sequences, far from seeming simply grafted on (as is so often the case with physical theatre) appear to arise naturally, supplementing and deepening our understanding of the undercurrents in the play.

Characterisation is outstanding, with an energy that is palpable; Iago (Charles Aitken) in particular, bristles with nervous tension, his charm and boyish looks belying the darkness of his intentions. Othello (Jimmy Akingbola) too, paces the stage, displaying not nobility but a brooding power which erupts terrifyingly at the end. Desdemona (Claire-Louise Cordwell), also, is no placid and compliant wife but a feisty, assertive 21st Century woman.

Voices are not mellifluous, but harsh and strident in tone, aided by the guttural West Yorkshire accents. Yet the actors handle the Shakespearian verse well, bringing a harsh beauty to this bleak dystopian world.
And underneath it all is Gareth Fry’s superb sound-score: dogs barking, bottles smashing, cars roaring by, and the music of Hybrid pervading the whole.

By the end I understood two things: the meaning of Aristotle’s catharsis and the fact that Shakespeare is for today.

Othello: Jimmy Akigbola.
Iago: Charles Aitken.
Desdemona: Claire-Louise Cordwell.
Emilia: Leila Crerar.
Cassio: Jamie Reid-Quarrell.
Roderigo: Richard James-Neil.
Brabantio/Lodovico: Marshall Griffin.
Montano: Eddie Kay.
Bianca: Minnie Crowe.

Directors: Scott Graham, Steven Hoggett.
Designer: Laura Hopkins.
Lighting: Natasha Chivers.
Sound: Gareth Fry.
Soundtrack: Hybrid.
Choreographers: Scott Graham, Steven Hoggett, the Company.

2008-10-09 16:31:15