 | Othello |  |
"Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her!
Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw.
To furnish me with some swift means of death
For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant. Othello
I am your own for ever. Iago " Act III, scene iii
Written: 1604
Schauspiel Frankfurt ; April 17, 2009 Frankfurt, Germany
Director : Simone Blattner ; Starring : Rainer Frank (Roderigo/Emilia), Patrick Heyn (Cassio), Joachim Nimtz (Othello), Aljoscha Stadelmann (Iago), Bert Tischendorf (Desdemona)
Reviewed on : 2009-04-22 12:33:38 ; Reviewed by : Annett Baumast
| A female director (Simone Blattner) and an all-male cast of only five actors promise a special production of the rather male-dominated Othello. For the beginning of the performance, the audience is not asked to take their seats but rather to stand up in very low light behind a special gallery type construction on the stage (and not in the auditorium, which remains hidden behind the iron curtain throughout the performance). Iago enters from a side door and while walking through the crowd, he starts his torrent of hatred against Othello, making it very clear to everybody that he hates the “Negro” from the bottom of his heart. His very coarse language stems from the translation of Horst Laube and heralds a production that might scare away those used to the translations of the Romantics such as Schlegel and Tieck.
The performance continues with Othello’s first appearance on top of the black construction and introduces the rather tall and muscular but very androgynous Bert Tischendorf as Desdemona, frantically in love with her “chocolate ear” and “brown bear”. Cassio and Roderigo appear on top of the gallery as well, introducing the remaining two actors of the cast. Luckily for those getting weary feet and aching necks, the platform on top of the gallery that the actors had used for their performance, turns out to be the moveable floor of the big stage, which is now brought down, enabling the audience to take their seats in the two-storey galleries that surround the acting ground. A very square “in the round” space is created with the four moveable parts of the stage creating four different levels, on which the action takes place, quite a bit below the level of the audience.
The only props used in this production – apart from the handkerchief, of course – are two half-wigs, fastened to Alice bands and used by Desdemona and Roderigo-turned-Emilia (he is the only one who doubles) to underline their femininity. And then there is the inevitable black make-up, of course, complete with huge golden earrings. Not very carefully applied to Othello’s face and hands, the black colour marks him as the one who is different, as the “Negro” or, as Desdemona puts it only once after he has thrown insult after insult into her face which can nearly physically be felt by the audience, the “Negro pig.”
The rudest language, however, still comes from Aljoscha Stadelmann’s Iago, who applies it not only to the really disgusting drinking songs he, Roderigo and Cassio give, but uses it to underline his general misanthropy. He hates Othello, he is disgusted by his wife Emilia, who he treats nicely only when he tries to get the handkerchief from her, he dislikes Roderigo and Cassio, who he both kills, and is probably not too fond of Desdemona either. Most probably, this Iago does not even like himself. Unsympathetic as he is, however, he seeks the audience’s proximity, comes up from the “pit” to the galleries, addresses single members of the audience and yearns for affirmation.
His agitation has the desired effect and it is fascinating to watch how Joachim Nimtz’ Othello turns into a misanthrope just like Iago himself. Even Desdemona’s kisses cannot stop him from his resolution to kill her and so he strangles her with her lips on his. Instead of killing himself, however, (for some reason this seems to have become out of fashion in many German-speaking theatres lately) he just sits down next to her and lowers his head. Iago comes to join the two and just after he asks “And now?”, the lights go down and the performance is over.
Not only are the lines at the end of the play shortened, there are a few other things, particularly characters that are dropped in this production. Desdemona’s father never appears (and his lines are mostly cut) and also Bianca is nowhere to be seen. A very poignant presence, however, is Rainer Frank’s Emilia, who performs much better as a woman than as a man, more often than not mumbling lines of disapproval to herself when she comments on Iago’s deeds, which earns her death by strangling through her husband who has then eliminated the same actor a second time within only 2 minutes.
A very austere but very impressive Othello, not only because of the black and grey, very simple stage but also due to its reduction to five actors and, in particular, the emotions that they display. “Superfluous” text is cut – hardly ever “replaced” by other texts – and only “enhanced” by incidental remarks and figures of speech. And then, theatre is always special in locations other than the usual stage-auditorium-divide, a feature this production can certainly be proud of.
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Sir John Gilbert, R.A.,
Othello and Iago
Reviews
|  | Schauspiel Frankfurt
April 17, 2009 |  | Northern Broadsides
March 11, 2009 |  | Royal Shakespeare Company at the Warwick Arts Centre
February 6, 2009 |  | Théâtre de l'Odéon
November 14, 2008 |  | Metropolitan Opera
February 22, 2008 |  | Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
February 13, 2008 |  | Stratford Festival of Canada
August 4, 2007 |  | Boston Theatre Works in BCA Plaza Theatre
March 2006 |  | Ankara Devlet Opera ve Balesi
November 16, 2005 |  | Oyun Atölyesi
March 14, 2005 |  | Lions Gate Films
2004 |  | Lyric Opera of Chicago
2002 |  | Masterpiece Theatre
2002 |  | Tim Blake Nelson
2001 |  | Royal Shakespeare Company
January 6, 2000 |
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