|
By
FRANK BEHRENS
I have never made up my mind
if it is more painful to watch "Othello" or "King
Lear." In both cases, you feel like leaping onto
the stage and strangling the leading character for
being so utterly stupid. It is the supreme test of
any actor to make these men sympathetic enough to
move an audience to tears -- and not only.
Once during a lecture, someone asked me for a fast
distinction between comedy and tragedy and I came
up with "Comedy is what happens when women are in
charge, tragedy when men are."
I do not think I have seen a really satisfactory
performance of "Othello" (in which a good man in
charge is taken over by an evil man). More often
than not, Iago steals the show, mainly because he
is having such a good time duping the entire cast
right down to the last few minutes of Act V.
However, we now have an Image DVD, of a nearly
complete "Othello" shown on British television in
1990, based on a Royal Shakespeare production
directed by Trevor Nunn. Now I do not know what
Venetian military uniforms looked like in about
1865, when this play seems to be set, but the ones
you see are far too much like American Civil War
garb. But there is a point to this "anything but
the historical period setting and costuming"
attitude toward staging classics nowadays. I will
get to that in a moment.
Nunn was astute enough to cast an opera baritone,
Willard White (whom you might have seen as a
magnificent Porgy on an EMI video of the Gershwin
work), in the title role. He is able to do with
the great rolling iambic lines what another black
actor found utterly beyond him in a film version
not too long ago, and in the early part of the
play he gives us a very likable Othello.
His evil genius, Iago, is played by Ian McKellen
in a most interesting way. He is all soldier,
standing at strict attention at times even when
addressing the audience. Here the blue Union
uniform looks just right for a man who will use
any "good cause" to conceal his villainy.
Unhappily, though, he often lapses into whispers
and mutterings that are simply unintelligible --
and that too seems to be a sure sign of recent
filmmaking.
Nunn has given Imogen Stubbs all the right moves
for Desdemona; but I find her voice a little
squeaky and her physical appearance a little too
girlish to bear the weight of the role. Yes, she
is very good but somehow I found her not right.
Perhaps you will disagree entirely.
Clive Swift (yes, poor Richard Bucket from
"Keeping Up Appearances") is directed to shout far
too much as Desdemona's father, while Michael
Grandage as the idiot Roderigo is actually made to
fall onto the floor like a spoiled brat (which he
is) in a temper tantrum (which looks absurd). The
Cassio (Sean Baker) is adequate, the Bianca
(Marsha A. Hunt) amateurish. On the other hand,
Zoe Wanamaker makes a superb Emilia, and Nunn has
found some interesting aspects of her relationship
with her "honest" husband, Iago.
The only lines I missed are most of those between
Cassio and the clown, here a silly solider, in a
scene that is almost always entirely cut. The
pacing is at times far too slow -- the video runs
205 minutes -- but you really must see this
production many times for the great acting of
White and McKellen. English and Drama Departments,
take note. |
