The Stage

Othello

Published Friday 9 October 2009 at 12:55 by Kevin Berry

This production intrigues from the outset. All except Vinta Morgan, who plays Othello, make their first entrance playing a violin or a cello. It is as if they are preparing for a recital.

This is a performance with music but not at all a musical. The strings catch the musicality of the text, although not every time an actor speaks. Turmoil and anxiety are heightened, passion brushed and coloured with a moment of melody. Then, when there is heightened dramatic tension, the instruments strike emphatic chords.

These actors do not look awkward - Laura Durrant, as both Emilia and Gratiano, holds a cello as if acting with a cello is entirely normal. Apparently she has danced and played cello at the same time for a physical theatre company.

The set is another surprise. It looks perfunctory, with nothing unusual, but when the action begins all is fluid and adaptable. A panel of wood is placed between short pillars and becomes a jetty. Then it is raised for Desdemona’s bed and then her funeral pyre. The violent storm, which destroys the enemy fleet, is well staged.

Christopher Dingli’s Iago is sensibly understated, a clever manipulator rather than a demented plotter. Vinta Morgan’s Othello is commendable but he is better when moving. Mention must again be made of Durrant - her playing of Emilia, Iago’s wife, is fine acting. Nick Holbek’s Roderigo and Charles de Bromhead as Cassio need greater definition.

The whole is an interesting collective effort put together by a team with a sense of adventure.