Othello
At the Kingston Rose
I
wonder if I will ever get over the great feeling of seeing The
Kingston Rose full of applauding people. It has been great to see
the place open, active and some good productions already. But this was the
first time it has been full, and what a great atmosphere. The age range of
the audience has been nothing like as bad as I feared, but on Saturday there
was, for the first time, some genuine diversity. Not all the faces were
white. And why might this be? Because Lenny Henry was bringing his
Othello to Kingston.
To be exact, Barrie
Rutter’s excellent Northern Broadsides were bringing Lenny to Kingston. Rutter
specialises in touring theatre and claims to play anywhere to anyone. He did one
of the theatre’s first productions at the Rose back when it was a
building site and I interviewed him then for the theatre magazine. The
production was what I expected – up front and direct, well projected and
sparsely set.
All
the lead players were excellent. In the first half Conrad Nelson’s Iago, an
aging second in command in an Edwardian style uniform, sucking up then
betraying. The direction made it clear for the many non-Shakespeare literate in
the audience ‘Good Iago’, ‘Honest Iago’, ‘Oh worthy Iago’.
In reality Iago ‘hates’ Othello. We don’t know why, that is immaterial. All that
matters is that Iago hates him and will do anything to bring him down. He does
aim to step into the general’s shoes, but that is never the apparent motivation.
Sheer hatred is all we need to know. Iago manipulates all around him with
cold-hearted ruthlessness to ensure the tragic end is inevitable.
Jessica Harris plays
Desdemona as a naïve innocent. Given that she was presumably about 15 years old,
I found this convincing – though note that Desdemona is generally considered not
free of guilt. This pretty, skittish, very young portrayal puts no blame on her
apart from naivety. She would be no match for far less de
vious
players than hate-filled Iago, and so she is lost. I enjoyed Maeve Larkin as
Emilia, Iago’s wife, whose fury once she sees the truth in her husband is
impressively ferocious. Her utter disgust in the final scene is eloquent.
So to Henry’s
Othello. He is perfectly cast. He is a big, big man, a believable General,
fighter and leader. Othello is no intellectual, but an honest soldier devoted to
the cause of Venice. He is warm and kind, decisive and chivalrous and above all
honourable. But as the illness of jealousy takes hold he loses all bodily
control. Interviewing Emeiia he strides round her in a manic circle unable to
stop, and when it all come too much he falls on the floor in an epileptic fit.
At times Henry is still just speaking lines, but as often he becomes a part of
the text. At all times he is believable and sometimes wonderfully so. More light
and shade, perhaps more subtlety, but in this upfront and direct production he
is an utterly splendid Othello.
If Lennyon is hugely
entertaining, and very well worth seeing.
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