Word: lago
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...downhill from there. When the lights come back on, lago (Erik Amblad) talks to Roderigo (Paul Siemens) over a game of chess. lago, Shakespeare's lines reveal, is angry with Othello for having denied him a promotion. Unfortunately, Amblad does not seem angry at all as he wields one or two inexpressive arm gestures again and again. The stage that seemed to have so much potential becomes a nuisance when actors turn around and throw unprojected, inaudible lines to about a third of the audience at a time. Every lighting change is accompanied by a melodramatic clang, and the actors...
Like Salahuddin, Amblad speaks a little too casually to convey lago's calculating, evil character. The two actors' speaking styles turn some of the most popular speeches in Shakespeare into soft-spoken words with no meter or emotion behind them. "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy," says lago blandly, appearently oblivious to the meaning and treachery of his own lines...
...play drags toward its conclusion, Othello, deceived by lago into thinking his wife has been unfaithful, kills both Desdemona and himself in an act of unconvincing rage. Although Jed Silverstein and Alexandra Marolachakis give good performances as the foolish but passionate Cassio and the submissive Emilia, this play has few redemptive qualities...
Unfortunately, this successfully defamiliarized production of "Othello" is not a good one. Levine sacrifices both vicarious appeal and smoothness when he casts lago as a nice, boring guy, Othello as a quiet, badly-dressed general, and several minor characters as masked, "mechanical" bores. A sense of alienation is easy to achieve in theater. What takes more work is putting together a meaningful and entertaining play. Levine's "Othello" distances viewers "not wisely but too well" so well that the audience shrinks somewhat after each intermission...
...incredibly annoying, and seems to pop in and out without warning or respect for what's going on. With a large number of cameos by noted personalities, it is surprising that so few of these char acters are memorable or even fun to watch. EvenGilbert Gottfried (who played lago in "Aladdin")is wasted on stupid dialogue as the annoyingBerkeley Beetle. An exception to this is CarolChanning's Mrs. Fieldmouse--her attempts toconvince Thumbelina to marry Mr. Mole are at leastamusing, and she carries off the small roleconvincingly...