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 The Theatreguide.London Review

Othello
Lyttelton Theatre   Winter 2022-2023

The National Theatre's exciting production of Othello, directed by Clint Dyer, points to the world that generates the conflict.

It is faithful to the script apart from cutting a section of the ending and has clear performances from a fine cast, particularly Giles Terera as Othello whose strong chemistry with Rosy McEwen as Desdemona evokes a very believable loving relationship.

However, director Dyer also gives the play an expressionist visual tilt that emphasises the disturbing context, the shaping pressure of a white racist society in which a prominent black man has married a white woman.

The year 2022 is fleetingly projected above the stage but the cast dressed in black reminds us of the militarised fascist groups of the 1930s.

In most scenes, a good fourteen of them sit at various points along the tiered steps that line three sides of the stage

This generally frozen tableau in the shadows intensely watches events and at times simultaneously reacts physically to the words of Iago or Othello, perhaps leaning grotesquely sideways or raising their arms, emphasising the threat or the emotions of fear and anxiety in what is said.

A low-key unsettling soundscape adds to the mood. Lights will shift suddenly to focus perhaps on Iago as the rest fall into the semi-darkness.

Late in the show, as killings are arranged, the black-clad figures in masks emerge holding huge plastic police shields gradually forming on the steps what looks like the shape of a swastika.

The play opens with an outraged lynch mob seemingly led by Jack Bardoe (Roderigo) carrying a noose outside the home of Brabantio (Jay Simpson), demanding something be done about the 'filthy black Moor'. The sequence ends with a very assertive Desdemona (Rosy McEwen) confidently insisting Othello is her husband.

The mob is incited by Iago who is given a very powerful performance by a lean uniformed Paul Hilton wearing a moustache. His manner is at the same time both charming and terrifying, reminiscent of Hitler or Brecht's Arturo Ui.

Desdemona doesn't trust him. You can see that in her expressions and no wonder she is negative about him. She has probably guessed why Emilia (Tanya Franks) has a bruise on her face and flinches near her husband.

Both women are subjected to terrible domestic violence. Yet they continuously express themselves and fight against their oppression.

Desdemona seems convinced her relationship can be different since, after all, she has courageously broken with convention to marry for love. Giles Terera’s reflective Othello also gives her reasons to hope for better, given the way several times she is able to shift his gloom and doubts into something much brighter.

We first see him briefly warrior-like, exercising with a fighting stick and surrounded by a crowd moving their bodies in excited adulation. Later, with his shirt off, we see the scars on his muscular body, the consequence perhaps of his role in battle or past imprisonment as a slave.

Giles Terera’s Othello knows that his survival has meant brave risky action, but he listens carefully. It's a fatal combination when it comes to the dangers of Iago.

There is no traditional calm ending to round off this production. Instead, the last words are those of Iago, the Brechtian Arturo Ui figure created by a racist society that continues beyond the play.

Keith McKenna