OTHELLO To 6 July.

London

OTHELLO
by William Shakespeare

Southwark Playhouse To 6 July 2002
Mon-Sat 7.30
Runs 3hr 30min One interval

Tickets 020 7620 3494
Review: Ian Willox: 13th June 2002

Iago shines out as star of this new productionAbout a hundred people can cram themselves into the tiny Southward Playhouse, leaving just enough room for a wisteria bedecked stone set and nine actors to unfold the inexorable tragedy of Othello. Big aspirations for a small venue.

Iago (Christopher Hunter) is the star. From his opening complaint of being overlooked for promotion in favour of Cassio (“…a great arithmetician… a Florentine”), through his plotting and pandering, to his final downfall, he holds the audience enthralled. His duplicitous service to Othello, his swindling of Roderigo, his undermining of Cassio and his exploitation of his own wife is single minded in its self-serving intent. The audience are so close to this scheming evil that their fascination with Iago takes on a personal note. No one wants to turn their back to him (and he usually enters from behind the audience).

Othello and Desdemona are always problematic roles. Goodness is far less interesting than villainy. And neither Leo Wringer as Othello nor Alice Hart as Desdemona quite overcome this problem though Wringer’s performance improves in his scenes with Iago. But the audience want to see what Iago will do next.

However, the price we pay for the delight of Iago is in the emotional climax of the play. The stabbing of Roderigo and the throttling of Desdemona seem pale in contrast to Iago’s soliloquies. Into the gap steps Iago’s wife Emilia (Sonia Ritter). As she understands the impact of her husband’s plotting and her own part in the downfall of Othello and Desdemona she reveals herself as more than a match for her husband, both dramatically and as an actor. When Iago stabs her to death and is taken captive, once again the action seems less compelling. But a small quibble about a production of lucidity and intensity that makes three and a half hours flash by.

Othello: Leo Wringer
Iago: Christopher Hunter
Desdemona: Alice Hart
Cassio: Darrell Brockis
Emilia: Sonia Ritter
Bianca: Nicola Ratcliffe
Roderigo: John Sackville
Brabianto/Montano: Stephen Ley
Duke of Venice/Lodovico: Martin Ritchie

Director: Spencer Hinton
Designer: Anna Toumanova
Lighting: Hansjorg Schmidt
Sound: David McSeveney

2002-06-19 02:07:04