Othello

Rating:
Summary: Farewell content!
Review: So much of Orson Welles' Othello rendered unintelligible by technical glitches, it is somehow back-handedly fitting to find Ian McKellen achieving the same effect out of simple interpretive perversity, rushing wildly, incomprehensibly through 1/3 of his lines, chumblingly swallowing another 1/3. (It may not be fair to fault him for so 'interesting' an attempt--the notion of phony working class touchy-feeliness might have been Trevor Nunn's.) Whereas traditional plumes, turbans,"neighing steeds" and floor length robes can cover a lot of inanity, this obviously low budget, lower imagination production offers no space in which to hide it's time-shifted pointlessness. (Recalling the legends of Welles' costuming problems, one wonders if this entire concept hinged on Royal Shakespeare's wardrobe out-of-stock except for left-overs from some Yank Civil War turkey.)

It has to be said that Imogen Stubbs might have made a touching Desdemona in a less change-for-the-sake-of-change production. And what a delight to hear Willard White articulating in his vibrant, Robesonesque bass tones, battling not only Iago and the Fates, but the sort of clever-dick innovations that transmute a High Testosterone Warrior/Man-of-Action into a bureaucratic paper shuffler and wielder of rubber stamps.



Rating:
Summary: Great no matter what
Review: For some reason watching stage on t.v. is addicting its just a very different. Ian Mckellan is great in this in which he was awarded for his outstanding performance. Just be sure not to miss this underated gem

Rating:
Summary: Not perfect but getting there
Review: I have never made up my mind if it is more painful to watch "Othello" or "King Lear." In both cases, you feel like leaping onto the stage and strangling the leading character for being so utterly stupid. It is the supreme test of any actor to make these men sympathetic enough to move an audience to tears. Once during a lecture, someone asked me for a fast distinction between comedy and tragedy and I came up with "Comedy is what happens when women are in charge, tragedy when men are." I do not think I have seen a really satisfactory performance of "Othello" (in which a good man in charge is taken over by an evil man). More often than not, Iago steals the show, mainly because he is having such a good time duping the entire cast right down to the last few minutes of Act V.


However, we now have an Image Entertainment DVD of a nearly complete "Othello" (ID2622RZDVD) shown on British television in 1990, based on a Royal Shakespeare production directed by Trevor Nunn. Now I do not know what Italian military uniforms looked like in about 1865, when this play seems to be set, but the ones you see are far too much like American Civil War garb. However, there is a point that helps us understand Iago to this "anything but the historical period setting and costuming" attitude toward staging classics nowadays.


Nunn was astute enough to cast an opera baritone, Willard White (whom you might have seen as a magnificent Porgy on an EMI video of the Gershwin work), in the title role. He is able to do with the great rolling iambic lines what another black actor found utterly beyond him in a film version not too long ago, and in the early part of the play he gives us a very likable Othello.


His evil genius, Iago, is played by Ian McKellen as all soldier, standing at strict attention at times even when addressing the audience. Here the blue Union uniform looks just right for a man who will use any "good cause" to conceal his villainy. Unhappily, though, he often lapses into whispers and mutterings that are simply unintelligible-and that too seems to be a sure sign of recent film making.


Nunn has given Imogen Stubbs all the right moves for Desdemona; but I find her voice a little squeaky and her physical appearance a little too girlish to bear the weight of the role. Yes, she is very good but somehow I found her not right. Perhaps you will disagree entirely.


Clive Swift (from "Keeping Up Appearances") is directed to shout far too much as Desdemona's father, while Michael Grandage as the idiot Roderigo is made to fall onto the floor like a spoiled brat (which he is) in a temper tantrum (which looks absurd). The Cassio (Sean Baker) is adequate, the Bianca (Marsha A. Hunt) amateurish. On the other hand, Zoe Wanamaker makes a superb Emilia, and Nunn has found some interesting aspects of her relationship with her "honest" husband, Iago.


The only lines I noticed omitted are most of those between Cassio and the clown, here a silly solider, in a scene that is almost always entirely cut. The pacing is at times far too slow-the video runs 205 minutes-but you really must see this production many times for the great acting of White and McKellen. English and Drama Departments, take note.


Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: I have only seen two other productions of Othello. One was an amateurish high-school like production staged as it would have been in Elizabethan times complete with Elizebethan sets and a second one was a production at my high-school set in what was either a modern day boot camp or Iraq with the sort of acting that should have been in the first production I saw. But this one takes the cake. The acting is amazing. Trevor Nunn has given us an amazing production as he has done so before with "Porgy and Bess", "The Merchant of Venice", and "Oklahoma" shattering all set stereotypes. What we get is a powerful production of Shakespeare's tale of jealousy. In short, it's a freakin' good show.

Willard White displays great magnitude as Othello. Imogen Stubbs, a.k.a. Mrs. Trevor Nunn, gives us a Desdemona totally fresh and free of all stereotypes. Zoe Wanamaker (otherwise known to younger audiences as Madame Hooch from the first Harry Potter movie) is an amazing Emilia. But the performance that steals the show is Ian McKellen as Iago. Sure he mumbles a lot but what a voice he has. What I especially love is how each monologue or soliloquy or aside is addressed to the camera as if we are part of the action. It helps to feed the tension onscreen. I also felt that the costumes were very Civil War-ish. If they were trying to set the show in the civil war, they forgot to get rid of their British accents. I don't know what it was. Despite these flaws, it was an amazing performance that is worthy of five stars.