FOUR STARS
DISTILLING Shakespeare’s Othello into 100
minutes successfully is no mean feat especially doing so for a young
audience.
However a production now on at Shakespeare’s
Globe has managed to do just that and be both entertaining and
exciting.
It is being staged as part of the Bankside
theatre’s education department’s Playing Shakespeare programme.
It remains faithful to the original text and shows
the themes of ambition, lust, power, jealousy, racsim and treachery.
It is an utterly absorbing and dramatic
production, exciting and full of energy and the cast make full use of
the Globe’s main stage.
There are also zip wires for characters to zoom
down from the top gallery to one of two podiums in the groundlings' area which all add to the action.
It is set in the First World War and gets down to
business setting the scene for Othello’s downfall as soon as the
curtain goes up.
Othello's nemesis, Iago, is played brilliantly by
Jamie Beamish who steals the show with his incredible portrayal of
the man whose actions trigger the course of events that take place.
He is a man full of anger with a lust for power
and revenge. He is treacherous and poisonous, a psychotic schemer,
constantly chipping away at Othello’s insecurities and jealous
nature.
Othello is a weak man, desperately in love with
his wife Desdemona but willing to believe Iago’s lies about her and
about his newly promoted lieutenant Cassio.
The whole cast is superb, some of whom take on
multiple roles, and the tell the story simply and powerfully.
Othello is on at
Shakespeare's Globe, Bankside until March 21. Visit
www.shakespearesglobe.com for listings and tickets.
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