Othello at the National Theatre

Last year, I realised the Giles Terera, who I've seen, and been very impressed by, in his own play ' The Meaning of Zong', and as Aaron Burr in 'Hamilton'  was going to be appearing at the National Theatre, as 'Othello', so I wanted to go, and persuaded my friends, E and A to come with me. 

The Thames, and London Skyline

We all arrived in London early enough to meet up for a second breakfast,  before heading over to the South Bank for drinks and nibbles, then the show. It was a beautiful day, with lovely views along the THames, towards St Pauls, as we crossed to the South Bank.

It's a play I've only seen a few times before, I think, twice  at the Globe - once with Eammon Walker and TIm McInnerny, and once with Andre Holland and  Mark Rylance, and in Bath with Lenny Henry as Othello and Conrad Nelson as Iago. I think the last of those was on 2018, so it's been a while since I've seen the play.

Set, before the play started

In this production, the set is pretty minimalist - a series of tiers and staircases, which, before the play began were covered with projections of posters and playbills for older productions of Othello, and a cast member was cleaning the stage - cleaning away older iterations and assumptions about the play, perhaps?

This version of the play puts the inherent racism and misogyny of the characters front and centre - Iago (Paul Hilton) appears like a cut-price Moseley, all black shirt and pencil moustache, and there is a chorus (at times appearing as a literal mob with flaming torches) to back him up.  The Venetian nobility praise Othello's military prowess, and are, of course, quick to send him to defend them from the invading Ottoman navy, but will not shake his hand.

There's also a scene where Othello, called from his marital bed, is seen shirtless, his back showing the scars of beatings and giving us a very visceral reminder of his history of having been enslaved. 

NT Publicity Photo -
Rosy McEwan as Desdemona and Giles Terera as Othello

 As the play progresses, we also see Emilia, Iago's wife,(Tanya Franks) who (per the text) is used by her husband, to take the handkerchief which he uses to convince Othello that Desdemona has been unfaithful, performed explicitly as a victim of domestic abuse, both attracted to, and frightened of, her husband. It's a powerful performance, and provides a rationale for Emilia's sympathy towards Desdemona and her silence in the face of Othello's growing suspicions. It comes across particularly strongly in her speech in Act 4.

I thought it was a very interesting production, and one which gave a new perspective on the play, but not easy to watch.

After the play, we went to Mere where we enjoyed some wonderful cocktails and a fantastic meal, of which, for me, the highlight was the dessert - a beautiful sphere containing coconut Mousse, kumquat Marmalade, and coffee mousse, flavour which I didn't think sounded as though thy would work together, but which really, really, did!

Given the rather unreliable habits of GWR at the moment, I'd opted to stay overnight and come home on SUnday morning - I had thought I might go to the British Library's ALexander the Great exhibition, but in the end I was too tired and din't fancy hanging around until 11 for it to open, so instead, I got the first train home (delayed by half an hour!) 

Everywhere was covered in heavy hoar frost, and looked lovely, if rather cold! 

I believe tht Othello is going to be broadcast to cinemas via NTLive on 23rd February, and hopefully on NTatHome after tht. I think it's worth seeing. 

In Which Shakespeare Happens

I was once again in Bath, for another evening at the theatre, this time to see ‘Othello’, with Lenny Henry in the title role. The production was originally at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, so the cast have had time to settle into it.

It is Lenny Henry’s first Shakespearean role, and I think first major ‘straight’ stage role (nothing like going in at the deep end), and the reviews have been a little mixed, so I was looking forward to seeing for myself how well it worked. I was very impressed with his performance as Fat Charlie (and Spider) in the radio adaptation of Anansi Boys, so I knew he could do striaght acting, but wasn't sure how he would be on stage, in Shakepeare.

The last Othello I saw was at the Globe, with Eammon Walker as Othello, and Tim McInnerey (Lord Percy / Cpt. Darling in Blackadder) as Iago…

This one was a little different.

The setting was broadly Victorian, and the sets pretty minimal – dark, panelled backdrop and a balcony (the bed for the murder scene was brought in later)

Other than Lenny Henry, all of the characters had Yorkshire accents, which was slightly distracting for a moment. And I can say for a fact that Mr Henry can act.

It was fascinating to watch him go from genial, tolerant and magisterial general, and besotted husband, to tormented and brutal murderer.

Iago (Conrad Nelson) was very convincing in his plotting and machinations, although it was harder to see why or how such a man could have gained so many people’s trust.

Desdemona (Jessica Harris) was played as very young, naïve, and deeply in love. Physically, she is tiny, which worked well with Othello who was (literally) head and shoulders above anyone else.

Emilia was played as an older, very pragmatic woman, loyal to her husband despite his behaviour to her and her disapproval of his actions generally., which made her final actions when she was pushed beyond endurance by her realisation that he was responsible for Desdemona’s death both believable and tragic.

There was a little light relief in amongst the tragedy – in particular, in Act II Scene iii – the ‘canakin clink’ drinking song made for a nice little interlude, it came with its own small brass band (thus proving that the production came from ‘oop north’!)

Of course, there are always minor niggles – I felt that Lenny Henry did rush his lines a little, but only in the first couple of scenes – he seemed to get into his stride after that – and as mentioned before, I felt that Iago did ‘evil’ better than ‘convincing people of his trustworthiness’, but all in all it was an excellent production, and I am very glad that I went! I think a lot of others must have felt the same – I gather that it was sold out all week.
So the question becomes, what should I see next? I haven’t any more tickets booked at present…

Professional review and photos here