STC's 'Othello' on the Jersey Shore
In Simon Godwin's new production of Othello, mounted by Shakespeare Theatre Company at the Harman Center and seen last week, the action has been updated to "a modern capital" and "the time is now." The Moor and his soldiers are not Venetian guards and sailors, but a general and his men in an American military unit. Clearly members of a lower class, they serve at the pleasure of their wealthy betters. Wendell Pierce, familiar from his television roles in The Wire and Treme, sports a blue beret and military uniforms. He woos and marries Desdemona (Olivia Cygan), the daughter of a wealthy family, and serves a Duke of Venice (Todd Scofield) wearing a suit like an American president. The war scenes, with explosions and warships firing, seemed to evoke the Iran conflict, although it is timed with that war only coincidentally.
Ben Turner, who had an affecting turn as Macduff in Godwin's Macbeth two years ago, makes a cagey, street-wise Iago. The backwards baseball cap and gangster attitude implied the Jersey Shore more than his clipped American accent, not particularly specific to any part of the country. Melanie Field reinforces the idea as his smart-talking wife, Emilia, costumed in somewhat trashy outfits (costumes by Susan Hilferty and Sarita P. Fellows). By the end of the play, she becomes the fierce defender of truth in a world of lies. Daniel Velez's Roderigo and an ensemble of misfit grunt soldiers break into hip-hop dances (choreography by Jonathan Goddard) and have a rowdy kegger in the drinking scene that disgraces Lucas Iverson's forthright, even goofy Cassio, who was a very funny drunk.
Turner had the strongest handle on the rhythm of Shakespeare's language, shifting effortlessly from prose to poetry and back again, in what is the play's longest role. He made savvy use of a soldier's barking tone at times, especially to show deference, real or ironic, to a superior. Pierce tended to roll too quickly through his lines, choosing words to punch and eliding others, but his transformation from loving husband to jealous murderer moved in a believable arc. Cygan's Desdemona, beautiful and heart-breaking though she was, felt overshadowed by Field's more raucous Emilia and Giovanna Drummond's bubblegum-smacking Bianca. Although Shakespeare's songs are cut from the drinking scene, the modernized rendition of Desdemona's Willow Song, with a sort of background vocal by Emilia (music by Shiloh Coke), worked remarkably well.
Othello runs through June 28. shakespearetheatre.org
