Peter Viney's Blog

Othello
By William Shakespeare
Adapted by Kara Maria Sweet

Directed by Paul Hart and Anjali Mehra 
Choreography by Anjali Mehra
Design by Ceci Calf
Musical Direction by Nadine Lee

CAST:
Molly Chesworth– Desdemona (understudy: Laura Andersen Guimarães)
Laura Andersen Guimarães– Bianca (understudy: Augustina Seymour)
Damien James – Montano
Ediz Mahmut- Roderigo
Yazdan Qafouri – Cassio
Benedict Salter – Duke of Venice / Lodovico
Augustina Seymour- Brabanzia
Kalungi Ssebandeke- Othello
Sophie Stone – Iago
Chioma Uma – Emilia

I always have to put in a picture of the beautifully set Watermill Theatre. It’s hard to imagine that this is just a few hundred metres west of the main A34 south-north road.

A female Iago? That’s the first talking point. Then Brabanzio, Desdemona’s dad, becomes Brabanzia, her mum. But I trust what Paul Hart and the Watermill do with Shakespeare, and it’s always radically different. When other theatres switch genders you sense a deliberate political point. Not with the Watermill, where you feel they are making best possible use of a small, tight ensemble.

Othello is no longer the lone black character in the play, and hasn’t been for a while. The RSC added a black Iago. Here we have a black Emilia and several BAME actors. It dilutes the impact of the racist message, but then the male jealousy theme is equally powerful.

The central confined metal box and the Desert Storm uniforms reminded me strongly of the 2013 National Theatre production which used a Portakabin centrally on the set, as what the army uses on distant missions.

Understudying

Saturday matinee. Since reading Michael Simkins The Rules of Acting I’m always a little iffy about understudies on a matinee, as with a long tour it’s worth giving understudies a go. However, this just has a week to go and I’m 100% sure it is genuine incapacity. Also, The Watermill does well on matinees with its rural setting. This production weaves together acting, musicianship and dance so tightly, that replacing anyone is a major task. They lost Desdemona, and so Laura Andersen Guimarães stepped up. Look at the list of what they all play, and it’s clear that Laura is the main musician, so putting her in as Desdemona has repercussions for all the music. Can she get to the clarinet / guitar / acoustic bass guitar/ saxophone on time? and so on. Her original role as Bianca doesn’t appear until later on, and that was replaced by Augustina Seymour who had played Brabanzia. It’s fortunate that Molly Chelsworth, the original Desdemona, is only credited with percussion:

We were told they’d had one day to learn the new parts, and that includes practising the very physical scenes with Othello. We were told that they might use the book. Not really. Laura was carrying what looked like a tiny diary, and I only saw her glance at it once and that was before a speech, not during one. Karen didn’t see her look at all, and we were both in the front row, literally feet away from the actors. I thought she might have come in early on one line and that she and Othello handled that seamlessly. Because Laura Andersen Guimarães is very tall, I suspect they had to go with her Bianca costume and improvise the nightclothes with a blouse.

Anyway, both understudies were sent to the front in the encore and got terrific applause, rightly.

The play

The set is dominated by that rough hewn wood and corrugated metal cube, which serves for interiors. The walkway at the top is used too, and was difficult to see from the front row, but not impossible. The setting is recent war in a foreign place, and the style is rough squaddie, much like the National Theatre 2013 production.

Every production rests on the Iago / Othello interface, and mostly Iago is easily the better role for an actor to choose (I’ll go right back to Frank Finlay and Laurence Olivier in 1965). Here they balance.

Iago is a semi-narrator sharing plans with the audience. Sophie Stone gives a thuggish, raucous, dare I say “laddish” Iago, rather than the deadly smooth plotter.She is a deaf actor, and that enhances her performance, in that she’s instinctively visual. Expressions, gestures are added throughout. She has that distinctive deaf pronunciation / intonation pattern, but she is completely clear in her delivery. The female version gives her Emilia as a ‘wife’ though they don’t explore that. Being female also gives her a difference in getting up close with Rodrigo, Cassio and Othello.

Kalungi Ssebandeke is Othello. We both thought he was superb in the role. He’s helped by being younger than usual, so that he is constantly physical. Doing press ups, lifting himself up on bars, conducting an exchange with Iago with both of them practising boxing (which is similar to the English Touring Theatre’s 2018 version). He can also do the sudden explosion into total violent rage. I’ve known a couple of people who are taken in anger that dramatically, and fortunately it’s rare. He doesn’t have to fake being consumed by jealousy. He’s believable. It works. I also liked his line delivery. The strangling scene was particularly well-done.

They’re all good – and also all playing multiple minor roles and playing instruments. Benedict Salter as the Duke of Venice was noteworthy – mild Scottish for the duke, RP later for Ludovico who arrives in Cyrpus to close the play. When he’s giving out advice and instructions, we thought it very funny that he was picking them out from a revolving desk calendar of mottos.

Laura Andersen Guimarães had been Desdemona for a day and carried it off extremely well. She was quieter than the rest, but still audible. That last strangling scene must have required considerable rehearsal with Kalungi Ssebandeke.

Brabantia as a woman is not problem … anxious and angry mother works. Augustina Seymour then had to double to understudy Bianca, and didn’t refer to a book at all.

It has a certain rawness, which works with the squaddie feel. It may have been slightly rawer again as they were having to compensate for the musical and casting changes on a tight stage. If anything, it may have enhanced it. It comes out in the pissed up squaddie dance sequence where Iago has to get Cassio (Yazdan Qofouri) drunk.

Costume

I have developed a mild aversion to the ubiquitous Desert Storm battledress in any Shakespeare play with soldiers, but I’ll live with it. An oddity was Othello’s greatcoat in RAF blue/grey. It had loosely attached sergeant major / warrant officer stripes wiht crown above, marking him as an NCO, not an officer, certainly not a general. Yet Iago had major’s crowns on her shoulder, but Cassio was a lieutenant (though originally that meant second-in-command to Othello).Maybe my generation brought up on war comics and war films notice it more, but stripes on the arm are pretty universal. I’d just remove the stripes. Googling ‘military ranks’ wouldn’t take long.

Music

This list from the programme is NOT in chronological sequence:

The arrangements make great use of cello throughout.

Kalungi Ssebandeke as Othello opened the second half with an outstanding version of Jealous by Labyrinth.

Desdemona has Killing Me Softly With His song, and I’d guess Molly Chelsworth would have sung it with Laura Andersen Guimarães playing guitar at the side. As Laura was now Desdemona, she had to do both … play and sing, which she did beautifully. Chiuma Uma as Emilia joins her in backing vocals. It was an acoustic version, so why does to the programme credit it to the later covers by The Fugees / Lauren Hill? It was a #1 hit for Roberta Flack in 1973 as well as #1 for Lauren Hill and The Fugees in 1996. Unusually both versions get into Rolling Stones “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”

I Only Have Eyes For You is in the programme. I didn’t notice it.

They are so good with “found” music that I’d been hoping for the mod classic Desdemona (Lift Up Your Skirt and Fly) by John’s Children … Marc Bolan’s old group. Perhaps it’s too esoteric. And raucous. And rude.

Overall

It’s got to be four star, and we were seeing it with understudies. When I first met Karen, she was intent that the best productions needed dance as well as drama (she studied dance and drama). She’s invariably a lower rating than me, but here it was an unequivocal five star from her. Whatever, it’s vibrant, full on, performed with vigour and enthusiasm. Let’s hope it tours.

****

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

four star
Gareth Llyr Evans, The Guardian ****
Judi Herman, What’s On Stage ****
Nick Wayne, pocketsizetheatre ****

three star
Donald Hutera, The Stage ***

LINKS ON THIS BLOG:

Other productions of OTHELLO
Othello – NT 2013
Othello – RSC 2015
Othello – Wanamaker Playhouse, 2017
Othello – English Touring Theatre 2018
Othello – Globe, 2018
Othello- Watermill, 2022

PAUL HART, Director
Twelfth Night, Watermill, 2017
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Watermill 2018
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Watermill On Tour, 2018
Macbeth, Watermill, 2019
Kiss Me Kate, Watermill 2019

SOPHIE STONE
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Watermill 2018 (Hermia)

BENEDICT SALTER
The Importance of Being Earnest, Watermill 2019 (Jack Worthing)
Lady Windermere’s Fan, Classic Spring 2018

CHIOMA UMA
Kiss Me Kate, Watermill, 2019

MOLLY CHESWORTH
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Watermill On Tour, 2018 (Puck)