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"Cheek by Jowl" posted October 6, 2004 at 06:09 PM

Paula, Laura, and I attended a performance of Othello last night at BAM. It's the second production by the British theater troupe Cheek By Jowl that I have seen (the first being Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, which I loved).

We were all pretty mixed on this performance. I enjoyed it, but it didn't move me or thrill me in any way. I have never seen a production of Othello before, and it's always wonderful to hear Shakespeare recited aloud (especially by British actors who know what they're doing), so for that alone I enjoyed it. But I had the odd experience of having all my opinions about the actors shift from the first half of the evening to the second half--before the intermission I was loving Nonso Anozie, who played Othello, and I was feeling not so hot on Jonny Phillips, who played Iago. But at the end of the night I'd switched allegiances, and felt that Phillips did all the subtle acting and Anozie just played a crazed Othello the way anyone who wanted to doing something over-the-top would: drooling, over-emphasized slouching and stumbling, stammering. The role is over-the-top enough, it seemed to me, and could have held much more nuance in the performance.

The lighting was very good and kind of subtle. The direction was interesting. Because there were no sets--only props--the director had the freedom to have the actors literally chasing each other around in circles at times. And while they sometimes ventured out into the aisles of the audience, the lack of sets also allowed them to represent two or more various locations on the stage at the same time, even overlapping them.

They wore modern dress costumes, which were simple business and military uniforms for the men and easy-going dresses and shoes for the women. I like this because it all fades away behind the characterizations and the stage blocking. Especially without sets, period costumes can be a distraction. (I remember loving the elegant modern dress costumes they used in Duchess of Malfi).

Anyway, I don't know if it was the actors or the production, or perhaps it's just that I'm not a very jealous person myself, but I never got sucked into the theme of jealousy that is so central to the play. But I did, at times, feel great hatred for Iago's deceitfulness, which serves as the play's other big theme. I read Othello only once--about 20 years ago. So I was very satisfied, just to have the text back in my head again.

Tonight is more BAM--the Kronos Quartet playing music by Terry Riley....


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