Simon Godwin’s sexy and horrifying production of Shakespeare’s Othello is a gasp-inducing roller coaster that hurtles towards its inescapable “tragic” end at a brisk, thrilling pace.
In the words of Shakespeare Theatre Company dramaturg Drew Lichtenberg, the play “resembles the warped perspective of the funhouse mirror. It reflects, all too well, the hatreds and visions that continue to bedevil our modern society, plaguing our public speech and poisoning our minds.”
Years ago, as a young Black student, I remember my high school teachers instructing me about the “tragic flaw” we would find in Shakespeare’s protagonists. Simon Godwin’s production of Othello is making me rethink that concept of the “tragic flaw.” Maybe it has outrun its usefulness.
The title character of the play, Othello, is a Moor – a Black man- and Iago is his trusted ensign in the Venetian military. As a Moor, Othello occupies a special space in the collective imagination of The Venetians and in the imagination of Iago in particular. You would recognize that space in the media frenzy surrounding O.J. Simpson, Jack Johnson, Marion Barry or Zohran Mamdani. Watching Iago’s meticulous gaslighting, humiliation and destruction of Othello while everyone repeatedly praises Iago for his honesty – THAT is the crux of the play. Until the day comes when everyone calls what Iago has done evil. And, then, they call him a devil.
Inequality of wealth, opportunity and safety are essential to the Venice that Mr. Godwin shows us. Desdemona floats throughout most of the show in tasteful, carefree clothing whose mere existence challenges the rigidities of the state. The clean geometric lines of the Venetian court contrast with the burnt out dystopian landscape of the suburban cookout held at the home of Iago and Emilia. Othello and Desdemona’s exclusive, but raucous, wedding reception, safely hidden behind huge, polished and discreetly guarded wooden doors contrasts with the drunken melee in military camouflage that Cassio gets caught up in (which itself is reminiscent of a previous scandal involving American soldiers at Abu Ghraib). And it’s a man’s world.
The generous cast motivates every line in a way that makes it easier for an American audience to comprehend both the sense of the words and the music of the language. Ben Turner’s Iago evokes a disenfranchised white boy (with the persona of someone like Eminem). I would not have been surprised to hear Melanie Field’s Emilia sing Janis Joplin. Olivia Cygan’s Desdemona is an American princess powerbroker who knows how the wheels of power turn, what she wants from that and the cost for it. Somebody has to play the sexpot and Giovanna Drummond brought that energy as Bianca ( costumes designed by Susan Hilferty and Sarita P. Fellows).
Lucas Iverson’s Cassio balanced the potentially goody-two-shoes aspect that the character can have and gave the audience a portrait of desperation and fidelity. The applause for Wendell Pierce is cautious when he enters for the first time. He’s certainly not Diana Ross or Denzell Washington. But it is reassuring to see Wendell Pierce onstage. And he brings us the combination of majesty, sensuality, passion and integrity that Othello requires and that only experience and humility bring.
Maybe the tragedy in this Othello has always been less to do with the man, than an indication that it’s been past time for a long time to have a reckoning with evil.
Othello at Shakespeare Theatre’s Harman Hall at 610 F Street NW plays through through June 28.
Approximate running time: 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Gregory Ford is the Anacostia Coordinating Council Arts & Culture Critic. He is also an actor and singer. He is a member of Verbal Gymnastics Playback Theater troupe. He has written for dctheatrescene.com and continues to write for dctheaterarts.org, focusing on College and University Theater Productions. He is a clinical practitioner of psychodrama. Mr. Ford lives in Northeast Boundary in Ward 7.
