Theatre in Review: Othello (The Public Theater at the Delacorte Theater)

	Chukwudi Iwuji, Corey Stoll. Photo: Joan Marcus

For the current revival of Othello at the Delacorte, Ruben Santiago-Hudson has taken a radical approach: He has dispensed with any high-concept staging ideas, preferring to do the play straight up, using a set that strongly suggests Venice and Elizabethan-era costumes, relying entirely on the strength of the text as delivered by highly capable -- and, frequently, inspired -- actors. And, to my mind, he has created a production that, more than most, represents the Joseph Papp ideal of Shakespeare in the Park.

The point of free outdoor Shakespeare always was to make the Bard's work available to the widest possible audience, and, indeed, this is a production that is free of pandering and yet can be enjoyed even by those who have had little experience with the play. (If you have in your household young people who are just getting to know the greatest of all playwrights, it is well-nigh unmissable.) The Public takes a multipronged approach to Shakespeare: See Sam Gold's take on Hamlet last season or the informal, intimate, high-speed versions presented by the Mobile Unit. At the Delacorte -- except in the first couple of scenes, when Santiago-Hudson seems at a loss where to put the members of the ensemble, allowing them to occasionally block the principals -- this is as cleanly staged and clearly spoken an Othello as I have ever experienced, revealing the play's fine bone structure and charting an unstoppable course to tragedy.

In addition, the Public's devotion to diversity, pioneered by Papp and advanced by artistic director Oskar Eustis, is perfectly reflected in the production's casting. The four leads are cast in the conventional manner, but Roderigo, who pines for Desdemona and, therefore, hates Othello, is black; Cassio, accused of being Desdemona's lover, is of South Asian extraction; and Bianca, her father, Brabantio, and the Duke of Venice are played by Hispanic performers. This approach reframes the play's racial politics, focusing less on Othello as a dark-skinned interloper in a Western European society and throwing attention onto the aspects of his character that are so masterfully manipulated by Iago.

And -- this is especially a feature of Eustis' tenure -- the production has been cannily cast, down to the smallest speaking role, with actors who make the verse seem like natural, everyday speech. This is surely the doing of Santiago-Hudson, who specializes in vividly realized ensembles. Chukwudi Iwuji, who has delivered solid work at the Public as Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra and Edgar in King Lear -- I missed his Hamlet, produced by the Mobile Unit and necessarily seen by relatively few theatregoers -- here emerges as a leading man of immense stature and presence. His Othello is a complex creation, naturally authoritative when leading his men, yet marked by an unusual vulnerability, at least where Desdemona is concerned; when they are reunited after a tumultuous voyage to Cyprus, he reveals an aching need for the woman he loves, clutching her with something close to desperation. This allows him to render thoroughly believable Othello's step-by-step descent into homicidal jealousy. "Perdition catch my soul/But I do love thee! And when I love thee not/Chaos has come again," he says, in one of the play's most famous passages. In Iwuji's rendering, chaos does indeed descend, when Othello violently slaps Desdemona in public, when he furiously tries to rationalize the crime he intends to commit, and, most shockingly, in a passionate embrace of Desdemona that is a prelude to death. (When looking at the women who, only recently, he loved so unreservedly, he says, "I cry you mercy then/I took you for the cunning whore of Venice/That married Othello," the notion of damnation suddenly seems very real.)

Corey Stoll has seemingly envisioned Iago as a sociopath, concerned only with the best way of achieving his ends and unperturbed by the violence and desolation that he causes; he seems to regard everyone else as a figure to moved around on a gameboard that exists only in his mind. Stoll makes the audience his accomplice, smiling genially at each new betrayal and basking in the elegance of his plotting. Manipulating Roderigo and Cassio into a deadly confrontation, he coolly assesses each man's chances and what it would mean for him if one of them lives. (As it happens, he would prefer that both die.) That only occasionally does he reveal a bit of brimstone -- for example, when he roars out those chilling words "I hate the Moor" -- makes such moments all the more powerful. And, near the end, when Othello, half-mad with the understanding of his crime, tries to take revenge, Stoll adds an unsettling note of triumph to Iago's insistence that, while brutally stabbed, he still lives.

Heather Lind's Desdemona is a shade less accomplished; she is a tad over reliant on hand and arm gestures, and there's a slightly tentative quality to her performance, especially in her early scenes, although she conveys a passionate love that matches Othello's. But as she loses his favor, a stark sense of injustice comes to the fore and she fights back vigorously, struggling to hold on to her husband even while buffeted by the winds of his madness and fury. The dignity and courage with which she faces him in the terrible final encounter adds immeasurably to the sense of waste caused by Othello's ungovernable rage. Even better is Alison Wright's Emilia, who views the world of men with a coldly knowing eye, influenced by her clearly unhappy marriage to Iago. Unusually, she emerges here as an equal to the three other leads, especially when denouncing Othello; in savagely destroying his illusions and forcing him to see that he has murdered an entirely innocent woman, she guarantees that the spirit of tragedy reigns over the Delacorte these nights.

There are several fine supporting performances, as well, including Peter Jay Fernandez's aristocratic Duke of Venice; Motell Foster's aggrieved, yet easily gulled, Roderigo; Flor de Liz Perez's fiery Bianca (especially in a memorable catfight with Emilia); Miguel Perez's Brabantio, casting out Desdemona and warning Othello that he will be the next to be betrayed; and Babak Tafti's Cassio, whose indiscretion with liquor provokes Othello's disfavor and sets the stage for all that follows.

Rachel Hauck's set, a series of caramel-colored stone walls (some of them movable), marked by a series of gothic arches, provides an apt environment for such cruel intrigues; Jane Cox's lighting adds depth to the stage picture by the skillful deployment of hues in a limited palette. Toni-Leslie James' richly embroidered costumes feature a black-and-gold palette with occasional color highlights to distinguish the principals; she also substitutes black leather pants and jackets on the men in place of doublets and hose, a look that feels both period and contemporary. Jessica Paz's sound design provides solid reinforcement for the trumpet flourishes and other musical interludes that underline the action.

No doubt some would prefer a more inventive, interpretive approach, but, to my mind, this Othello ranks among the finest I have seen, based on its swift, surehanded direction and incisive performances. It offers a bracing reminder that Shakespeare's indelible words and skillful construction are more than enough. -- David Barbour