Othello review
Feb. 15th, 2009 10:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThanks to RSC membership from vampadvocate and f1shbang at Christmas, I finally got to share my favourite Shakespeare play with Dave last night -wonderfully innappropriate for Valentine's Day!
The production was excellent, with interesting staging, good performances and a few familiar faces dotted throughout the cast.
I studied Othello at A Level, and I found myself saying the lines I'd memorised for my exams along with the actors as they came up throughout the play. The first half was even better than I remembered - a taut, psychological thriller, showing one man's expert manipulation of all around him, presenting himself as everyone's best friend, while really conspiring to bring them all to destruction. The writing is superb, and Iago is fabulous.
The second half devolves into the inevitable Shakespearean melodrama - lots of running around, shouting, falling down, weeping and wailing, and interminable death scenes, but it was still good. I love the fact that Iago doesn't slip into the temptation of monologuing at the end, and finishing on his evil laughter as he surveys the devastation all around him was very effective.
The production was excellent, with interesting staging, good performances and a few familiar faces dotted throughout the cast.
I studied Othello at A Level, and I found myself saying the lines I'd memorised for my exams along with the actors as they came up throughout the play. The first half was even better than I remembered - a taut, psychological thriller, showing one man's expert manipulation of all around him, presenting himself as everyone's best friend, while really conspiring to bring them all to destruction. The writing is superb, and Iago is fabulous.
The second half devolves into the inevitable Shakespearean melodrama - lots of running around, shouting, falling down, weeping and wailing, and interminable death scenes, but it was still good. I love the fact that Iago doesn't slip into the temptation of monologuing at the end, and finishing on his evil laughter as he surveys the devastation all around him was very effective.
