Word: othello
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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...
...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...
WHEN I VISITED Harvard during prefrosh weekend, I travelled with the herd from one lecture class to another. I saw Professor of English Marjorie Garber talk about cross-dressing in Othello. I heard Joseph S. Nye, Ford Foundation professor of international security, explain why international relations is better explained by checkers than by dominoes...