The Toronto Sun, June 05, 2007
Love and pain in Othello
By: John Coulbourn
As plays go, it's got it all - racism, jealousy, love, madness and poetry.
Small wonder then that the magic of William Shakespeare's Othello has endured through the ages.
And happily, the Stratford Festival production that opened on the stage of the Tom Patterson Theatre Saturday has the first four in ample measure with just enough of the fifth to command one's attention, even though it stops shy of sweeping us up in the exotic magic of Venice and Cyprus, where this work is set.
On that front, it gets scant assistance from the designer Carolyn M. Smith who, in concert with lighting designer Michael J. Whitfield, cleaves to the notion that the work should be cocooned in a largely monochromatic world that treats all of the celebrated light and colour of both locations as virtual anathema to the tragedy of the piece.
Design notwithstanding, however, it starts on a promising note, as players arrayed in period costumes take to the stage to shake the dust from the familiar old tale.
Right from the top of the show, in fact, Jonathan Goad commands the stage in the role of the malevolent and plotting Iago, demonstrating not just an unparalleled facility for the text but an acting ability to match it.
His is an Iago embittered by the whole world, and the hot grease of jealousy and outrage flames off him with such venom that one initially fears this will be yet another production dominated by one of Shakespeare's most enduring villains, instead of the flawed hero for whom the play is named.
Such worries evaporate however when Philip Akin hits the stage, cast in the title role as the imposing Moor of Venice, commander of her forces in a war with Turkey.
Not surprisingly, Akin's mastery of the text isn't on a par with Goads' - this is, after all, the man's Stratford debut and, like too many actors of his hue, he's not been afforded the chance to pad his resume with work from the Shakespearean canon.
But he more than compensates for his minimal experience in that department with a formidable stage presence that commands our attention and makes him a worthy foil to Iago's plottings.
As the story unfolds and the lovely young maid Desdemona (Claire Jullien) over-rides the objections of her highly-placed father (Stephen Russell) to her impetuous marriage to the black general, it is easy to believe she has been swept away by Othello's personal charm and the romance of his exotic background.
As Iago's malicious plot against his rival Othello thickens and as the action moves from Venice to Cyprus and more characters are introduced - Iago's embittered wife Emilia, played by Lucy Peacock, his professional rival Cassio, played by Jeffrey Wetsch, Cassio's ladylove Bianca played by Tova Smith and a host of others - the suspense builds, and by the end of the first act, it looks like director David Latham has scored a direct hit. Ironically, while graduates of the Festival's Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training, where Latham has served as principal, have proven weak links in other classical fare, both this season and previous, here, under his direction, they are in much firmer control of the text.
But, ironically, when things reconvene for a second act, Latham has lost his way, allowing his audience to get far enough ahead of his production that they arrive at the work's inevitable and tragic ending before the play does and, in the process, lose hold of the story's throughline in anticipation of that ending.
Robbed of suspense, that ending fails to horrify, for all that it reduces Iago to a spiteful churl even while it reminds us of Othello's flawed nobility.
In the end, it's all there - the racism, jealousy, love, madness and a bit of poetry - but Latham fails to add the suspense that will bind it all together.