Othello at The Olivier

I don’t recommend going to see Othello a couple of days after arriving home from Australia, even if the wonderful Nicholas Hytner is director and Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear are Othello and Iago respectively.  Try as hard as I might not to, I still (I’m ashamed to say) nodded off on a couple of occasions, although, thankfully not during the “juicy bits”.  I felt somewhat exonerated on reading a note by Mr. Hytner in the programme when he says, “I hardly ever go to a performance of one of Shakespeare’s plays without experiencing blind panic during the first five minutes.  I sit there thinking:  I’m the director of the National Theatre, and I have no idea what these people are talking about”.  If even the great man himself experiences this feeling of inadequacy, then maybe I shouldn’t feel so bad about periodically not having a clue last Monday night and subsequently letting my head nod.

It doesn’t actually help that Othello is not one of Shakespeare’s plays with which I’m terribly familiar.  Alright, before Monday I knew the plot. Iago, Othello’s best friend, encourages him to kill Desdemona, his new wife, but the why’s and wherefores were not familiar to me.  Trying to determine these whilst fighting jet lag wasn’t easy and the fact that this version is set in modern day, actually didn’t help.  Not that this take on the play doesn’t work, especially when the action moves to the Moor’s military camp in Cyprus and we see it has become a British Army garrison.  It works exceptionally well.  Vicki Mortimer’s realistic design is wonderful and how ingenious to have Othello hiding in a lavatory cubicle when he overhears the innocent Cassio apparently boasting about his affair with Desdemona.  This modern military encampment complete with the sound effects of overhead aircraft is very, very real.

Rory Kinnear, always brilliant, doesn’t disappoint here.  He actually makes Iago evilly amusing; a cunning bloke, intent on wreaking havoc and scarily believable.  His Iago is one of those Crimewatch mug shots of a man wanted for a hideous crime.  He looks perfectly normal but is obviously anything but.  This is an actor who says much when not saying anything at all.

Adrian Lester’s Othello starts off as an immaculate and dignified presence, confident in his own skin. However, this confidence is mere pretense.  He is all too ready to believe that his young wife is betraying him and is not able to understand that his ensign, Iago, may harbor resentment at being passed over for promotion.  Gullible?  Possibly, although former paratrooper, Jonathan Shaw, a military adviser on the production, says in the programme that, “trust is the basis of all soldiering.  Othello and Iago have clearly been in many fights together, life-and-death situations in which each has probably entrusted their life to the other and at some time saved the other’s life.  Iago has proved his ‘honesty’ on battlefields around the region; Othello has every reason to trust him implicitly.  Betrayal is the most heinous of military sins so it is the last to be suspected”.  The confidence may be pretense but this Othello’s military bearing and presence stays in tact.  Even in the gravest of circumstances, he still stands erect, hands clasped behind his back.  His mind may be a mess but it’s not shown outwardly.  Adrian Lester also has a wonderful voice for Shakespeare.  Clear, concise, a joy to behold.

The women, didn’t enthrall me so much.  Olivia Vinall’s Desdemona didn’t really do anything for me at all and, although Lyndsey Marshal as Emilia, Iago’s wife, was far more spirited, her anger spilled over into screeching.  Still at least she prevented more head nods!

What on earth will we do when Hytner leaves the National Theatre in 2015.