[NEohioPAL] Berko review: OTHELLO @ Great Lakes Theatre Festival

[Roy Berko]

Interpretation of OTHELO  at GLTF open to debate
 
Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News Times--Olmsted-Fairview 
Times

--COOLCLEVELAND.COM-

OTHELLO, a version of which is now on stage at Great Lakes Theatre Festival, is 
considered by many literature scholars to be Shakespeare's greatest tragedy.  Of 
all of the Bard's writings, it most shows what happens when love turns bad 
because of unfounded jealousy.

Shakespeare's use of tragedy in such plays as ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, HAMLET , 
JULIUS CAESAR, KING LEAR, MACBETH, ROMEO AND JULIET differs from the traditional 
western world definition put forth by Aristotle.  In the Aristotelian 
perception, the protagonist, the tragic hero, must be an admirable but flawed 
character, with whom the audience sympathizes.  He is often guided by outside 
forces to follow a preset path. Think  Oedipus, who we feel empathy for in spite 
of his misguided love for his mother, and his murder of his father.  
Shakespeare's tragic protagonists are capable of both good and evil because of 
the Bard's belief in the doctrine of free will, wherein people make decisions, 
not because the gods have willed they take prescribed actions, but make the 
decision which leads to their own doom.  

When Othello, the only Blackman in the Venetian state and a superstar general, 
appoints the Florentine Michael Cassio to a prominent position, Iago his right 
hand man, in a fit of jealous rage, plots to undermine Othello.  Thus, starts a 
series of events that leads to calamity.  Iago manipulates all other characters 
by trapping them in an intricate net of lies.  He achieves this by getting close 
to the people and playing on their weaknesses while portraying himself as 
"honest" Iago.  

This is one of the Bard's character driven shows, centering on six individuals: 
Othello, a Moor who is a general in the Venetian army; his wife Desdemona; his 
lieutenant, Cassio; his trusted ensign Iago;  Emilia, Iago's wife and 
Desdemona's maidservant; and, Roderigo, a fool who is in love with Desdemona.  
We clearly see the character of Othello choosing to believe his friend Iago, to 
reject his wife due to the lies told by Iago, and make foolish decisions that 
are his own doing, thus displaying the free will in which Shakespeare believed. 

OTHELLO centers on such themes as love, jealousy and betrayal.  And, because it 
also has overtones of racism and political intrigue, it has a modern feel.  
Director Risa Brainin has used these overtones to stage the show in modern dress 
and use General American pronunciation.

Besides the format and pronunciation, Brainin has made other decisions, some of 
which are problematic.   The pace of the show is languid, often lulling the 
audience, before it explodes in the final several scenes.  There is a strong 
question over what might be called the “soap opera” approach of some of the 
performers' acting styles and line interpretation.  

In order for the audience to feel empathy for Othello, the tragic hero, we must 
accept him as a real person, with real feelings.  David Alan Anderson's Othello, 
is not a real person, he is more a caricature, whose emotions are on the 
surface, who shows little real love connection for Desdemona, and who is often 
hard to understand because of slurring and often being inarticulate.  He does 
not display the power of a man who leads armies and is envied by all about him.

David Antony Smith is a delightful Iago.  But should Iago be getting laughs?   
He is the villain.  He is the manipulator who must be so real, so innocent (he 
is usually played as a sweet natured young blue-eyed blond).  As is, it is hard 
to believe that a wise and worldly Othello would fall prey to the obvious 
manipulations of Smith's Iago.

Kevin Crouch's Cassio is so young and played as being so naïve that why a great 
nation would eventually turn over it's military to him is a puzzlement.

On the other hand, Sara Bruner (Desdemona) and Laura Perrotta (Emilia) are right 
on target with their character development.  We feel pity for Desdemona as she 
is unfairly accused and pays dearly for Iago's maniacal, self-centered 
manipulations.  We clearly see what happens when Emilia sees her husband for 
what he is and takes a stand against him.  

Russell Metheny's set design caused problems.  Though building a cage around the 
characters, showing them trapped in their decisions, was effective, the vertical 
pillars often blocked the facial expressions of the actors as they moved around 
the stage and made for some strange blocking.

Throughout, the fight and death scenes were obviously choreographed to the 
degree that they looked unnatural.  One of the deaths even got a laugh from the 
audience the night I saw the show, because of the lack of believability.

Written in five acts, productions vary in their format.  GLTF has decided to 
divide, what turns out to be close to a three hour production, into two long 
segments.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:   Whether audience members will like, dislike or tolerate 
GLTF's OTHELLO will depend on their view regarding how Shakespearean tragedy 
should be interpreted.  I, personally, do not like my tragedies presented as 
soap operas.

Side note:  An excellent 'TEACHER PREPARATION GUIDE' has been prepared by Daniel 
Hahn and Kelly Schaffer Florian to be used by instructors who are bringing their 
students to see the play.  They can be obtained by contacting Kelly at 
kflorian at greatlakestheater.org or by calling 216-241-5490.

For tickets to  OTHELLO which runs until October 21 in repertory with AN IDEAL 
HUSBAND call 216-241-6000 or visit www.greatlakestheater.org.
 
Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 
2010, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at 
http://royberko.info

His reviews can also be found on www.coolcleveland.com and NeOHIOpal (to 
subscribe visit http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal.)
 
Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 
2010, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at 
http://royberko.info
His reviews can also be found on www.coolcleveland.com and NeOHIOpal (to 
subscribe visit http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal.)