Word: othello
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Othello is perhaps the most exciting of all Shakespeare's tragedies. The text is a tinderbox of cultural tensions between Black and White, Male and Female, East and West. But Judith Williams' Experimental Theater production loses the excitement entirely. Most of the players are as insensitive and lifeless as high school students forced to memorize and recite Shakespeare for a grade...
...Williams fails to fuse these individual performances into a strong vision of Othello--indeed, she fails to display any profound vision at all. It is unfortunate that such a vital and ever-timely script must, like Othello himself, be smote thus...
...Othello's very evident aggregation of wasted and misdirected talent exacerbates the woe. Jeff Branion has remarkable stage presence as Othello, but his considerable energies dissipate in delivery. Jonathan Hamel displays flashes of brilliance as Iago, but his overall characterization seems more vaudevillian than menacing...
...Othello is very clearly underrehearsed and under-directed. The play is unexpurgated and far too long for the unprepared players to sustain with any interest. Despite the location, little is experimental about this production. Iago occasionally breaks the fourth wall, but this technique more often distracts than engages the audience...
...cutesy, annoying attempt at originality. Emilia's "ills that we do" speech to Desdemona in Act IV, scene 4, explains that men wield all the power in the play. More than simple cross-casting, Williams' decision is a script revision that helps to undermine the strength of Othello's clear and present gender tensions...