Shakespeare’s Othellohas been Stratford’s “Scottish Play” – which is to say that it has been bad luck. Illnesses, injuries, a fine actor suddenly addicted and moribund, an English-speaking Israeli actor stunning as Othello in Hebrew but delivering the English speeches in a Yiddish-joke accent that had us straining not to laugh: this great play has seemed cursed!
So it is a pleasure and a relief to report that this summer’s production of Othello has broken the curse. Directed with passion and sensitivity by Chris Abraham and starring a great-looking, commanding Othello and Iago – Dion Johnstone and Graham Abbey, this is an elegant, intriguing, and passionate production.
Julie Fox’s settings and costumes have elaborate pieces but an overall simplicity that looks handsome and majestic: often the large stage is surrounded by huge, rich drapes which open on delicate white drapes to reveal Desdemona’s bed or an inner chamber of contrasting color.
Graham Abbey is a stalwart Iago who erupts into fury and quietly reveals his devious scheming, but though he is an appropriately dangerous Iago, he has none of the weaker, insinuating evil that is familiar in portrayals of this complicated villain. Similarly, Dion Johnstone is very attractive as the early heroic Othello, and when he rages with jealousy, he is a frighteningly uncontrolled man in great pain, but with none of the roaring, powerful antagonist we are more used to from pipe-organ-voiced actors like James Earle Jones. Johnstone and director Abraham bring us a forceful and complex tragedy but more intriguing in thought than overwhelming in passion.
Unfortunately, Bethany Jillard is a lusterless Desdemona. Her fear and pain are believable, but her great love and desirability seem dubious. Making up for her rather disappointing performance (in an otherwise uniformly superb cast) is Deborah Hay’s Emilia, whose astonishing strength at the very end of the play when she defies her husband, Iago, is thrilling. Ms. Hay has been a Stratford favorite for performances like her sexy, truly evil Milady de Winter in this season’s The Three Musketeers; and at the Shaw Festival where her comic Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday rivaled the unforgettable Judy Holiday’s. Here she almost steals the tragedy’s conclusion.
This is an Othello to be moved by and to think about –not the most overwhelmingly powerful version I’ve seen, but a very satisfying one.
