Monday 9 March 2015

Review - Othello - Globe Theatre


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.

No comments:

Post a Comment