Othello: A modern tragedy

Those who saw Adrian Lester play Ira Aldridge, the first black man to play Othello in London in 1833 in the Evening Standard Award winning play Red Velvet last year, will know he was destined to play the Moor well. Othello, one of William Shakespeare’s great tragedies written somewhere between 1603 and 1604 comes to life in a modern setting at the Olivier at the National Theatre. The play opens tonight on the 367th anniversary of the bard’s death and is sure to get rave reviews from the critics.

The play centres around Othello (Lester), a black army general who has married the senator’s daughter, Desdemona. Iago, Othello’s adviser is greatly offended that Othello has chosen Cassio to be his lieutenant instead of him and plots to bring about the downfall of both Cassio and Othello by convincing Othello that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair. Rory Kinnear’s Iago is merciless, manipulative and engaging to watch and his ability to make iambic pentameter sound like laddish pub banter is captivating. Lester’s Othello, calm and collected even in the board-room-type setting as he is confronted by Desdemona’s father, Brabantio over their secret marriage, is also eye-catching.

The modern setting works well with the play as it depicts modern military life with the 17th Century troubles of racism, love, honour and jealousy existing today. Act IV scene 1 where Iago quizzes Cassio about Bianca, while Othello hides and believes he is talking about Desdemona, works particularly well taking place in the men’s toilets instead of in front of a castle. The set is dark and seamless with actors effortlessly moving the set around as part of their army duties and common room antics lead to Iago’s pre-mediated plan for Cassio’s drunken destruction.

Lester portray’s Othello’s downfall with vigour and mortification. He tries to reason with Iago’s obscene lies before flipping completely from the calm, respected general to a violent, illogical mess. You can see in Lester’s performance the internal struggle he has in himself as he unwillingly turns from man to monster. As he is fed Iago’s lies, he becomes more torn and confused and it is painful to watch him suffer.

Directed by Nick Hytner, the production does well to try to fill in some gaps and flaws of the play. Having never seen the play and not read it since A level, the inconsistencies and flaws were instantly brought to light but then explained and filled by the production. For example, why Iago goes to so much effort to bring down Othello is unclear in the beginning but we soon get to know Iago’s character as Kinnear plays him; extremely callous and devilish. It is then obvious that he would go to great lengths to revenge anyone who offended him in the slightest. Why Emilia gives Iago the handkerchief when she knows it means so much to Desdemona is also a little odd when we can see straight through Iago, but as Emilia is played a little naively we can believe that she was ignorant of her husband’s real character until the end.

Kinnear’s Iago in his tormenting and torturing of Othello with crude images and false occurrences may be the devil personified in the 17th Century but mirrors a sour, jealous, contaminated bully of today. One who might walk over you to get your job or tell you lies to let your insecurities surface, a bit like in Mike Bartlett’s ‘Bull’ or a nasty, conniving candidate on The Apprentice.

This is an excellent, up-to-date, un-daunting production of one of Shakespeare’s greats. Lester and Kinnear are deserved and greatly fulfill the leading roles and the last scene as the truth is slowly revealed is insanely moving. The board room scenes with men in suits in Venice and the army base in Cyprus are both great ways of updating the play and giving it new meaning. If you haven’t booked, you know what to do!