Word: iago
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Most improved by this year of study is Jose Ferrer, whose portrayal of Iago is magnificent. Faced with the enormous acting problem of being "honest" and a villain at the same time, Ferrer plays a dynamic Iago without letting the part fall into the pitfall of melodrama...
...party Robeson expressed his appreciation of the work done by the members of the cast. He mentioned Miss Webster, the director, who is well known on the stage for her work on Maurice Evans' Hamiet, and Ferrer, who, he said, did a very good job in the part of Iago, as being particularly helpful...
...seen for several years, Mr. Robeson dominates the play not because of his role, but through the fine quality of his characterization. Othello's warrior of great strength and fearlessness is also a man of a simple nature that is receptive soil for the seeds of jealousy planted by Iago. Watching Robeson's performance, one can see this jealousy blight the tenderness of his love at the start as in his description of his love to the Duke of Venice, and develop into the towering passion which drives him at the climax to the murder of his wife. To portray...
Robeson, however, is but the major part of a complete theatrical spectacle. The rest of it depends upon the portrayal of the crucial roles of Iago, Desdemona, and Emilia, and upon the direction and setting of the play as a whole. As director, Margaret Webster presents work that is perhaps better than her previous successes with Shakespeare. It is through the directing that the play becomes a living thing. Upon her conception of the play depends the unity of the final product. She has created the motivation which in the written form is hard to follow, by emphasizing the characters...
Combined with these, the talent of the supporting cast completes the production. As the evil-spleened, ambitions Iago, Jose Ferrer mixed humor, cunning and villainy to portray this greatest of all stage villains, and was very successful in creating an Iago that could be both Othello's friend and enemy. Margaret Webster as Emilia was as competent an actress as she is a director, and turned in one of the best supporting performances of many seasons, while Uta Hagen was both charming and beautiful in the role of Desdemona...