Duelling Othellos

Intriguing, no?

I'm not quite sure why Hamlet is always the play that gets the special treatment -- two Hamlets or all the gender flipping, etc.  Maybe it is so much meatier, or it is simply because Othello is already a bit fraught and ripe for being considered racially insensitive so that no one wants to attempt a version where Othello is white and everyone else is Black (though that would be fascinating) or a female Othello (which also might be quite interesting).  And it is all but impossible to imagine a version where there is a calm, self-possessed Othello struggling with a passionate, brutal Othello.

I mean something a bit more straight-forward in that as we were sitting down for Othello (and fortunately the streetcar was more or less on time and we managed to get good seats), I ran into the actor who played Othello in the Driftwood version two summers ago.  (This was the one where we had such lousy seats.)  He was seated across from us, so we could occasionally check his reactions to the on-stage Othello.  Curiously, he was sitting with a friend who seemed to know nothing at all about Othello and was quite horrified at how Iago got away with everything, at least until the very last minute or two of the play.  (Interestingly, at Stratford several years ago they somewhat solved the issue of Emilia not speaking up when Othello went on and on about the handkerchief by moving her upstage a bit and perhaps out of earshot.  This time, she was just a couple of feet away and should absolutely have spoken up to help set things right.)  I couldn't tell if Carly Maga was serious that Othello needs a trigger warning, but this guy could have used a clue or two.

Anyway, this was super intimate Shakespeare, well done and a bit overwhelming (reminding me a bit of the very first time I saw Lear in Vancouver, which was in a similar theatre space).  There were a few times it felt a bit "too shouty," but I suspect it is just because we were so close to the action.  This may well be the last time I go see Othello, as it just isn't a play I care for all that much, but it was definitely a solid production if it is my last.  I think it is one my son will remember for quite some time as well.

Several of the cast members are regulars with Shakespeare BASH'd, though there were a few new faces.  I didn't remember where I had seen David Mackett before, but then I looked him up and I had seen him in Fly on the Wall's production of Conor McPherson's Port Authority.  And Dylan Evans (who was Cassio) also seemed familiar.  It turns out I saw him in Entrances and Exits at the Fringe, but then I also saw him in Picasso at the Lapin Agile a few years back.

This was the last performance (sorry!), but they'll be coming back in April with As You Like It.  I probably took my son to see George Brown do this, but I may take him again, as it is one of the lighter plays in the canon.*  I'm not thrilled that it is pretty far from my stomping grounds (playing at Junction City Music Hall), but I can probably make it out there.


* Othello is certainly one of the more troubling tragedies.  It's generally more typical to start with Romeo and Juliet...  In fact, he's also seen King Lear (only mildly gender flipped), which I didn't see live until I was in my 40s!  I should be able to take him to Macbeth and Hamlet within the next couple of years, given how often they come around, though I do want them to be fairly standard productions with only modest gender flipping at most.  I probably won't take him to The Merchant of Venice.  Quite frankly, I feel there is so little worth redeeming in that play that I don't intend to ever watch it again.