Othello
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Claire van Kampen
Designed by Jonathan Fensom
Composer Claire van Kampen
Shakespeare’s Globe
Friday 17thAugust 2018, 14.00
CAST:
Sheila Atim– Emilia
Catherine Bailey– Bianca / Doge of Venice
William Chubb– Brabantio / Montano
Steffan Donnelly– Roderigo
André Holland– Othello
Micah Loubon– Chorus
Ira Mandela Siobhan– Chorus
Aaron Pierre– Cassio
Mark Rylance– Iago
Clemmie Sveaas– Chorus
Badria Timimi– Lodovica
Jessica Warbeck–Desdemona
MUSIC
Adrian Woodward – band leader, Cornett, trumpet
Emma Arden – percussion
Beth Hugham-Edwards -percussion
Darren Moore – Cornett / trumpet
The Globe stage for Othello: completely sold out too, which was the Rylance effect.
The whole black and white issue is in my mind after seeing Hamilton the night before. There is a human gradation based on skin pigmentation and sunlight from white skinned blondes and redheads in the far north to some blue-black sub-Saharan Africans, but the vast majority of people are between the extremes. Yet an olive-skinned Greek is “white” and an Asian Indian of the same hue is “black.” The redheaded Queen Elizabeth daubed her face in dead-white pan make-up which was leaded. Elizabethans could fret about being “turned black” by the summer sun, and could refer to a raven-haired woman as “black.” So where does that lead to with the racist theme in Othello? What did Shakespeare mean by “black”? The Moorish ambassador to London was a prominent figure in London in 1600, just before the play was written. There is a portrait. He is ethnically Arab, not sub-Saharan African.
Abd el-Oahed ben Massoud, Ambassador for six months in 1600
He is likely to be the physical appearance Shakespeare had in mind for his “Moor.” (I disagree with the programme here). The Moors were rightly feared, as the Barbary Pirates from North Africa were raiding as far north as England for slaves (as well as far south as West Africa). One raid on Cornwall in 1625 saw 60 men taken as slaves, to join 5000 of their compatriots held in North Africa. Thus Moors were held to be “barbarous.”
Othello was originally called The Moor of Venice, and like The Merchant of Venice has problems in the PC 2010s. There is a desire to dilute the race theme, so that at the RSC in 2015, we had a black Iago married to an Asian Indian Emilia. At the Wanamaker Playhouse in 2017, we had a white Iago and a black Emilia. I said in that review:
Emilia is Iago’s wife. Iago gets the worst racist lines. It’s not explained … OK, maybe the audience should seek subtexts about their relationship
Mark Rylance as Iago
The Globe continues here with Mark Rylance as Iago, and Sheila Atim as his wife, Emilia. Other cast members are BAME actors, including Aaron Pierre as Cassius (noticeably bigger and stronger looking than his boss, Othello). An Arab “Moor” as Othello would be more problematic nowadays, though surely the play is about an honour killing. An African-American as Othello makes sense … Othello is a foreigner in Venice, and the Globe’s founder, Sam Wanamaker, was himself Iago to Paul Robeson’s (unusually for the era, black) Othello in 1959. On race, I’d forgotten that Iago is a “Florentine” among Venetians. Italians were (and still are) so prejudiced against other regions of their country that it actually asnother “race” theme.
A cast of twelve? Last year, the indoor Wanamaker Playhouse managed Othello with nine. It felt cut down too. The National Theatre 2013 version had twenty-one (including William Chubb, playing Brabantio, as in this one). The RSC version in 2015 had twenty. The Globe is a big space, and you’d think they could afford a full cast.
It is all about Mark Rylance. It is an innovative, original and very funny re-thinking of who Iago is. He has what appears a bell-boy costume, but it must be a weird Italian regiment in concept. This is Iago as a major comic role. The trademark Rylance semi-stutter is at play and he sets the mood in his opening scene with Roderigo (Steffan Donnelly) by walking in wide circles around the whole stage at speed. The circling Iago is a motif, like a shark circling his prey throughout, though we the audience can see the fin above the water, but the swimmers cannot. He is the comical trickster, disarming enemies because he appears affable, and with the hesitant voice, ineffectual, but he is constantly plotting. We still argue whether the best lead performance we ever saw was Rylance in La Bete or Rylance in Jerusalem. The downside of Rylance is that you can’t take your eyes off him, as I said in the review of Jerusalem with Jasper Britton. So he continually steals the scene from the main speaker.
Roderigo (Steffan Donnelly) and Iago (Mark Rylance)
Often it’s built in, as when he stands under the balcony as Roderigo shouts up to Brabantio that his daughter has gone off with the Moor. Iago, out of view from under the balcony, is conducting him like a puppet. He is totally compelling. I loved the line where he says to Cassio that he loves him (original text) then does an elaborate dismissive gesture and mouths “But not like THAT.” Because he uses every inch of the stage that he knows so well as the Globe’s ex-artistic director for so many years, there were points when he over-estimated his near magic ability to project a whisper or mutter right around a theatre. Facing the back of the stage under a helicopter overhead, a baby crying in one entrance gangway and a woman whose mobile phone kept bursting into audio street directions was pushing even his abilities, and I’m ignoring the first aid team carrying someone out in an important early scene. But that’s the Globe. Whatever, this is a bizarre, unexpected Iago. As usual, Shakespeare’s text can take it.
André Holland as Othello
From Laurence Olivier’s awful blue black boot polish with green highlights 1965 Moor onwards, when Frank Finlay as Iago stole the show, to Rory Kinnear’s Iago at the National Theatre (the best I’ve seen), we expect to discuss Iago first. André Holland was a fine Othello. I liked the rich American accent separating him from all the “Venetians.” He looked powerful, contained, authoritative and in charge. Good clear delivery too. I thought he transitioned particularly well over a period from suspicion into insane jealousy. Effective murder too. Jessica Warbeck’s Desdemona was the perfect English Rose in contrast, perhaps her “whiteness” highlighting the race theme which the rest of the casting makes harder. They had thought about it, in that the black Cassio is Iago’s other target, but then Iago IS married to Sheila Atim’s Emilia.
André Holland as Othello, Jessica Warbeck as Desdemona
Both Emilia and Desdemona were noticeably taller than their husbands, Iago and Othello. I don’t know how far we should go into this explaining their joint obsessions with jealousy in terms of fears of inadequacy based on height … Iago is transferring his own green-eyed monster to Othello … but it is an accepted thing that on average women seek male partners who are taller than themselves, and the papers used to note how Princess Diana had to wear flat shoes to avoid looking down on Prince Charles. André Holland as the imported film star has to be exceptionally good to avoid being knocked and he is, as film stars usually are. I hope he enjoyed all that live Globe acclaim at the end. Thoroughly deserved. Mark Rylance was self-deprecating in hanging back on the stage for the applause. He does. We notice he does. We’re supposed to notice he does.
William Chubb’s voice as Brabantio / Montano (Governor of Cyprus) was so far shot today that it was past “bring on the understudy” time. However, he got many laughs from the outraged father and was very good as ever. Just a sore throat like that is painful to hear and having been recently afflicted, we felt for him.
I read criticism at the concept of the female Doge of Venice. I don’t share it, though gender meddling pisses me off more than most. Elizabeth I was female … a British audience with the Queen, Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May should not feel shock at the idea of a woman leader. The Doge’s crimson costume, with her attendants in the same, matched the Venetian flag and was one of the better costume choices. Catherine Bailey doubled the Doge and the whore Bianca. Bringing Bianca into the drinking scene where they deliberately get Cassio drunk to disgrace him, works very well indeed. She was excellent as Bianca later, accusing audience members of being the perfumed owners of the handkerchief. That rocked me a little. Very funny, but if the intent was to focus on MALE jealousy, showing a female expressing jealousy too … don’t know. Does it undermine the theme or support the theme?
The drinking scene.
Costume was a chronological mix, but unlike the dreadful dressing up box Globe Ensemble costumes, it was at least designed. Some of it worked well. Iago stood out as comic. Othello had great embroidered coats and jackets as costumes. Cassio was late 19th century Italian army meets The Student Prince. The women were well-costumed generally though Sheila Atim’s lovely modern trouser outfit had zero connection to Desdemona’s “History Plays” dress near the end. Still they both looked great in them. The soldiers had red berets and modern costumes. Bianca and the women in the drinking scenes had split frocks over trousers, practically useful, I guess, for dancing on tables. So it was weak on costume theme, but individually good and far more than just a rag-bag.
Sheila Atim as Emilia, André Holland as Othello
As with the rest of 2018, there is very little set. Too little. A nice Venetian flag. Two funny boats with flags for arriving in Cyprus. An elaborate four poster bed with nice bed linen at the end. OK, the Emma Rice regime had way OTT Mexican trains and the Imogen plastic sheeting covering the basic fabric (which is what it’s all about as it is a recreation of Shakespeare’s Globe) but the Domenic Dromgoole era struck the right balance for us. SOME set at least. And so did Shakespeare’s company. The Michelle Terry era seems to dislike set and costume designers as much as directors!
At the end, the two lead ballet dancers are astonishingly good, as is Sheila Atim’s stunning version of ‘Willow.’ I guess the man is Ira Mandela Siobhan, who we saw in My Beautiful Friend, but which of the two listed female chorus he was dancing with, I don’t know. A truly fabulous sequence. From the production point of view I couldn’t believe how under-used two such great dance assets were earlier. The dancers feature forefront in the drinking scene, but I’d have had them on again. Featured at least once more, and I could not have left Sheila Atim with just the one song. Truly a great stage singer as well as actor. Missed opportunities, though in line with the austere image of the Michelle Terry regime at The Globe.
PROGRAMME
The programme and poster cover designs are crisp but dull this year. I’m amazed they’re trying to sell posters based on them. Simple design but you wouldn’t hang it on the wall unless you were obsessed with black, white and red. The synopsis is way too long – a third of a page precis synopsis used to be a Globe strength. The article Re-Discovering Blackness makes good points, but I’d use it as “how not to write a text.” Garbled. I get annoyed at this year’s decision to mix cast and creatives bios in the programme alphabetically. It’s really a crappy idea. Before the play, sitting there for ten minutes, I want to identify who’s playing what role, and whether I’ve seen them before without having them intermingled with the craft and production roles. CAST and CREATIVES have rightly been different lists for years as they are in the short list. Nearly every other theatre maintains the same division in the biographical notes. Not The Globe. The Globe is wrong. Globe programmes used to be state of the art under Dromgoole. They’re not now.
It’s not the best Othello we’ve seen. But it was unique, with a strong and different Iago-centric concept. It’s going to be a four star, along with the critical consensus, a very welcome lift after the two director-less and misguided “Globe Ensemble” productions this year.
****
WHAT THE PAPERS SAID:
4 star
Michael Billington, The Guardian ****
Domenic Cavendish, The Telegraph ****
Laura Barnett, Observer ****
Paul Taylor, Independent ****
Ann Treneman, The Times ****
Andrez Lukowski, Time Out ****
Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard ****
Tim Bano, The Stage ****
3 star
Christopher Hart, Sunday Times ***
Quentin Letts, Daily Mail ***
The Globe, having dispensed with the colour and amplification of its last artistic director Emma Rice, has returned to its former austere ways. There is little colour and few props. What a relief it is, if only to the eyes, when Desdemona’s four-poster bed arrives on stage … Quentin Letts
Sarah Crompton, What’s On Stage ***
Laura de Lisle, Arts Desk, ***
CRITICAL OVERVIEW: The Stage:
A rack of four-star reviews suggests that Rylance’s return to the Globe is a successful one. Some aren’t so sure, but most critics think his interpretation of Iago is unexpected and inspired. Classic Rylance, in other words.There’s less certainty about Holland’s performance as Othello – reviewers are divided over his naturalistic approach – and about Van Kampen’s production as a whole. It pleases the purists, it seems, but leaves others a little unsatisfied.
LINKS ON THIS BLOG:
Other productions of OTHELLO
Othello – NT 2013
Othello – RSC 2015
Othello – Wanamaker Playhouse, 2017
Othello – English Touring Theatre 2018
Othello, Watermill, 2022
MARK RYLANCE ON THIS BLOG:
Nice Fish, by Mark Rylance & Louis Jenkins, 2016
Farinelli & The King, by Claire Van Kampen, Wanamaker Playhouse, 2015
Richard III – Apollo 2012 Mark Rylance as Richard III
Twelfth Night – Apollo 2012 Mark Rylance as Olivia
Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth, West End
La Bête by David Hirson, West End, 2010
+ film and TV
Wolf Hall, TV Series (as Thomas Cromwell)
Bridge of Spies, directed by Steven Speilberg
Dunkirk 2017
SHEILA ATIM
Girl From The North Country, Conor McPherson, Old Vic London 2017
Volpone, RSC 2015
Love’s Sacrifice, RSC 2015
The Jew of Malta, RSC 2015
STEFAN DONNELLY
The Winter’s Tale, Wanamaker Playhouse 2016
Pericles, Wanamaker Playhouse 2015
Titus Andronicus, Globe 2014
CATHERINE BAILEY
Julius Caesar, Globe 2014
WILLIAM CHUBB
Racing Demon, Bath 2017
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Old Vic, 2017 (Polonius)
Richard II, Globe 2015 (Duke of York)
Othello – NT 2013
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