Othello: The Moor Claims the Stage

Othello was the play that made me fall in love with Shakespeare. I read it on holiday in Geneva when I was 12, having borrowed a musty book of Shakespeare plays from the local library where one side was in English, one in French, and the type was so impossibly small that I had to hold the book as close to my face as possible without going cross-eyed. But despite all those distractions, and despite the fact that I had never read an entire play before, only the snippets of various soliloquies and scenes we read in my eighth-grade Shakespeare class, Othello blew my mind. More specifically, Iago blew my mind. Through all that iambic pentameter, that man's deviousness and lies were crystal clear on the page and I found myself furiously reading each scene to see how the tangled web he weaved would ensnare Othello and Desdemona. Last week, I finally got to see this play performed live at the Delacorte Theater for Shakespeare in the Park. And I was surprised to discover that it was a very different experience from reading the play.

Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, this production aims to re-center the play around its title character, instead of letting Iago hog the audience's attention. Over three hours, I was astonished at how often the audience laughed when Iago delivered his lines instead of cringing in horror at his evil machinations. Every time a character described him as "honest Iago," the audience would laugh, where I would have expected a shudder at how easily this man had deceived those around him. Corey Stoll does a magnificent job as Iago, but he almost comes off as a comic buffoon rather than a devilish puppeteer who makes everyone dance to his tune. Instead, all the sincerity in the play is focused on the relationship between Othello (Chukwudi Iwuji) and Desdemona (Heather Lind) and watching how their love is corroded by lies and jealousy. Viewed through that lens, the story of Othello becomes less a tale about a master villain and more a tragedy about an easily-manipulated man. In fact, given how buffoonish Iago seems in this version of the play, it makes me even more angry to watch Othello fall for his lies.

Chukwudi Iwuji is a brilliant Othello and plays his role with immense pathos. He is so in love at the beginning, and then so utterly bewildered and consumed by jealousy by the end. It is heartbreaking to see that man brought so low by some well-chosen lies and that damned handkerchief. One of the things that struck me is the immense racism this character faces throughout the play. When you read Othello, the fact that everyone calls him the "Moor" starts to feel a bit commonplace, but when you are watching a live performance and see the vitriol that accompanies those words, you see exactly why Othello might already be in a frame of mind to think that everyone's got something against him. On the other hand, Heather Lind's portrayal of Desdemona is magnificent, giving her a backbone and a fierce sense of outrage when her husband accuses her of infidelity. This was a characterization I could get behind: rather than being a hapless Shakespearean female, she fights every step of the way, and her death is staged in a way that makes it clear that this is a woman who will not just lie down and take what is coming to her.

The sets are incredibly spare and there's nothing particularly elaborate about the staging or costumes. This is certainly one of the least fanciful productions I've seen at the Delacorte, which squarely places the emphasis on the dialogue. As I discovered when I first read this play, it is all about words and their power to move men to destructive ends. Iago wreaks havoc simply through malicious gossip and creating doubt; he does not need any other weapons in his arsenal. I would also be remiss if I didn't highlight the performance of Alison Wright as Emilia, Desdemona's lady-in-waiting and Iago's wife. We rarely get to see female friendships portrayed in Shakespeare but it is enchanting to see the few scenes Emilia and Desdemona have together where the women trade some bawdy conversation about men and genuinely enjoy each other's company. It makes you wonder if this is why it was easier for Iago to trick the men around him - men don't often share details about their personal lives so it's easier to feed them lies without worrying they will gossip with others later and discover the truth.

Shakespeare in the Park heralds the arrival of summer in New York, so enter the online ticket lottery or stand in line at Central Park and try to get a ticket before Othello ends on June 24. I would be intrigued to know what you think of this production - while it didn't reflect any of my preconceived notions of the play, it made me focus on elements I had hitherto completely missed because I was too captivated by Iago. Come to think of it, Iago had hitherto ensnared me in his web, and it took this production to make me hear more than just his honeyed words.