Some Cotswold highlights are famous, some are quietly fascinating, and Othello, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon is one of the reasons we keep finding new things to love about the area.
On this page we look at what makes it special, with details including Theatre Reviews, Othello and Royal Shakespeare Theatre, and a little of the context that helps you see it as more than just another stop on the map.
15/06/2015
Rating: ** By Colin Davison @IamColinDavison
One moment he’s urbane, self-possessed, unruffled by taunts; another he’s holding a claw hammer for a bit of DIY dentistry on his supposed closest confidante Iago.
What sort of man is Hugh Quarshie’s Othello?
One moment he’s urbane, self-possessed, unruffled by taunts; another he’s holding a claw hammer for a bit of DIY dentistry on his supposed closest confidante Iago.
What sort of man is Hugh Quarshie’s Othello?
Is he a riposte to that stereotype, as the programme puts it, that this black hero must be naïve, insecure and violent?
Indeed his “O fool, fool, fool,” realising that his late wife was innocent of the crime for which he has just murdered her, is uttered with the passion of a man who has discovered he has paid too much for his car insurance.
This may be a perfectly tenable interpretation, but it often seems here as if actors and director are on different wavelengths. The show is not however without merit.
Both Othello and Iago, Lucian Msamati, are black in this modern-dress production, providing an incidental laugh when James Corrigan’s Roderigo makes a taunt about the Moor’s dark complexion. Iago’s reaction is a blubbermouth impression and shrug.
Msamati has the plausibility of a true trickster, supposedly more concerned with a little housework while feeding Othello his lies; then Quarshie seems involuntarily to wet his lips for the crime ahead.
Joanna Vanderham has the careless, unguarded joy of the young bride Desdemona. It’s a nuanced performance in her first RSC role, and one that could develop with confidence.
Cassio is played by Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as a rather wet public school type, disdainful of other ranks.
The soldiers’ booze-up, into which he is inveigled, develops into a rather witty rap routine about race “I’m the lady-killa; she’s sick of chocolate and prefers vanilla.” Cue trouble.
Rather less probable is the depiction of his Bianca. The sight of the unfortunate Scarlett Brookes dressed as a pantomime tart sipping tea from Royal Doulton rather summed up the production’s mixed messages.
At one point, director Iqbal Khan presents an array of torture instruments like a Black Museum’s 100 Objects. But if these are the tools of a brutal dictatorship, how come it’s ruled by the benign Othello and Cassio?
Alas, many speeches had a sameness of delivery, fight scenes were unconvincing, and the show was cluttered by distractions.
Ciaran Bagnall’s decayed Gothic scenery is impressive, but why must it move during a key speech? Why Othello’s onstage guitar accompanist?
Poor Desdemona is given obviously plastic flowers (she gives them away – wouldn’t you?), picks up a torturer’s electric drill, and when confronted by a husband with murder in mind has to trouble herself with doing up an over-elaborate dressing gown.
Finally, if I’m not mistaken, Othello didn’t manage to extract his dagger from its awkwardly strapped sheath in time to stab himself – thus becoming the first tragic hero to die of a double-handed clutch to the stomach.
Othello continues to August 28 and will be broadcast to cinemas on August 26, 2015.
Colin Davison
Indeed his “O fool, fool, fool,” realising that his late wife was innocent of the crime for which he has just murdered her, is uttered with the passion of a man who has discovered he has paid too much for his car insurance.
This may be a perfectly tenable interpretation, but it often seems here as if actors and director are on different wavelengths. The show is not however without merit.
Both Othello and Iago, Lucian Msamati, are black in this modern-dress production, providing an incidental laugh when James Corrigan’s Roderigo makes a taunt about the Moor’s dark complexion. Iago’s reaction is a blubbermouth impression and shrug.
Msamati has the plausibility of a true trickster, supposedly more concerned with a little housework while feeding Othello his lies; then Quarshie seems involuntarily to wet his lips for the crime ahead.
Joanna Vanderham has the careless, unguarded joy of the young bride Desdemona. It’s a nuanced performance in her first RSC role, and one that could develop with confidence.
Cassio is played by Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as a rather wet public school type, disdainful of other ranks.
The soldiers’ booze-up, into which he is inveigled, develops into a rather witty rap routine about race “I’m the lady-killa; she’s sick of chocolate and prefers vanilla.” Cue trouble.
Rather less probable is the depiction of his Bianca. The sight of the unfortunate Scarlett Brookes dressed as a pantomime tart sipping tea from Royal Doulton rather summed up the production’s mixed messages.
At one point, director Iqbal Khan presents an array of torture instruments like a Black Museum’s 100 Objects. But if these are the tools of a brutal dictatorship, how come it’s ruled by the benign Othello and Cassio?
Alas, many speeches had a sameness of delivery, fight scenes were unconvincing, and the show was cluttered by distractions.
Ciaran Bagnall’s decayed Gothic scenery is impressive, but why must it move during a key speech? Why Othello’s onstage guitar accompanist?
Poor Desdemona is given obviously plastic flowers (she gives them away – wouldn’t you?), picks up a torturer’s electric drill, and when confronted by a husband with murder in mind has to trouble herself with doing up an over-elaborate dressing gown.
Finally, if I’m not mistaken, Othello didn’t manage to extract his dagger from its awkwardly strapped sheath in time to stab himself – thus becoming the first tragic hero to die of a double-handed clutch to the stomach.
Othello continues to August 28 and will be broadcast to cinemas on August 26, 2015.
Colin Davison
