Othello

Published Monday 1 October 2007 at 12:35 by Pat Ashworth

Sometimes a familiar story can seem wholly new, and Birmingham Stage Company’s Othello is so gripping that the almost three-hour traffic of the stage passes by in an instant.

Its pre-1914 setting, with brisk army officers carrying out their duties in a foreign land, suggests an era of decency and correctness that both the marriage and the murders deeply offend.

Much of the success is down to Cyril Nri’s sensitive playing of the Moor and Neal Foster’s performance as Iago, a cunning psychopath who takes gleeful pleasure even in the exposure of his deception. He is a performer with an actor’s armoury of moves and gestures, a villain able to change the dynamic of any situation. In a single scene, an Othello relaxed and easy at his desk is brought to his knees and then to the floor as Iago goes in for the kill.

Nri is almost bashful at first, displaying the softer side of the confident soldier as he tells it with a smile. He is beautifully paired with Rebecca Santos as a Desdemona so buttoned-up and decorous as to be almost gauche - evidently the daughter of a good family and consequently making a startling match. The shock of being called whore makes her hyperventilate.

There’s an outstanding performance too from Emma Christer as Emilia. Her open countenance and clear, almost staccato delivery is just right for the plain speaking for which she finds courage in the final scene. A must-see, Othello transfers to the Bloomsbury Theatre, London for a four-day run.