Courtesy of Zac Chiste
“We like to start the season off with a bang” says The Shakespeare Company’s artistic producer Haysam Kadri. “Othello’s… one of my favourite shows in terms of Shakespeare’s plays and it’s always been on my list.”
The story follows Othello the Moor of Venice (played by Glenn Davis) who is appointed the General of the Venetian army and passes over one of his ensigns Iago (Kadri) for promotion. With sociopathic precision Iago sows tragedy by suggesting to Othello that his wife Desdemona (Andrea Rankin) is being unfaithful.
“The play’s about love the play’s about jealousy the play’s about rank there’s a lot of racial undertones. There’s many different threads that audiences can get out of this play” says Kadri. “It’s one of those timeless tales that really captures the human condition and all the good the bad and the ugly of it.”
With towering plays like Othello audiences — and actors — may be familiar with the story without ever having been to a production. Davis who plays the title character says that “For every young black actor playing Othello is on the list to do at some point.” Although he has studied certain speeches before he says he had never played the role or even seen the play in its entirety. “It’s such a monumental play in Shakespeare’s canon that I had some preconceived ideas about it and I think with this production we are taking some of those away and… getting right to the heart of what this story’s about.”
For example Davis points out that Othello is a love story as much as anything else with Othello and Desdemona fresh from their honeymoon. “They’re still in the first part of their relationship where you meet someone and you’re all over them and you’re in love with them and you think they’re amazing and they can do no wrong — they’re still in that stage when Iago starts to put his poison into Othello’s ear” he says.
Speaking of Iago he’s often a major reason that people are attracted to this play. Kadri who’s never played Iago before doesn’t play favourites (“Whichever Shakespeare I’m playing is my favourite part because there’s so much to chew on” he says) but still admits there’s something special to this villain: “Iago’s in a whole other different stratosphere in terms of jumping into a character and trying to find the energy and the seed of evil that carries him through the show.”
Anyone intrigued by the story but daunted by Renaissance prolixity should try The Shakespeare Company’s take on Othello. For one thing the normally three-and-a-half-hour play has been tightened considerably. “We do two-hour Shakespeare. We’re lean and mean we’re very plot-centric” says Kadri. “I’m a firm believer that Shakespeare needs to be edited for modern audiences and this one is edited. We don’t change any of the language we just trim the fat.”
In addition to a reasonable run time The Shakespeare Company also does its best to make the dialogue intelligible. Ensuring the audience can follow the language and the action however is the “bare minimum” according to Kadri.
“I want them to be transported into the world that we create” he says. “We really want people to be excited about the dramatic action we put on our stage.”
Drama check; action check. Othello has fights and lies and love suspicion envy power poisonous hatred a tragic hero and a consummate villain. It’s an ambitious play to stage and the opportunity to see it live in Calgary doesn’t come around every year.
Othello runs until October 11 at The Studio (Vertigo Theatre).
