Abstract
In this performance of Othello, director Clare van Kampen has chosen to emphasise the body of the actors onstage – through choreography and proxemics – which gives a sense of restlessness to the whole production. In the opening sequence, Iago (Mark Rylance) enters the stage and keeps pacing up and down, followed by Roderigo (Steffan Donnelly), wandering aimlessly on the stage and adopting a fast pace. The expository scene sets the tone of this production in which everything goes fast, bewildering the spectators because of heavy cuts in the text as well as only three music cues including the final jig. Many parallels can be drawn between this performance and the Othello directed by Ellen McDougall in 2017 at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – particularly concerning the roles of Emilia and Iago. We are far from the experimental and daring approach of Emma Rice; van Kampen resorted to the traditional use of a minimal set, very few props as well as period costumes and music.
The scenography aims at exploring the relationship between the actors and the audience. In Act 2, Iago, Desdemona (Jessica Warbeck) and Cassio (Aaron Pierre) arrive on a boat carried on a trolley by actors walking among the groundlings, who are thus cast collectively as the Mediterranean. Then, another boat follows, with Othello (André Holland) on board. The arrival of the boats through the pit engages the spectators by giving them a dramatic function and making them part of the set.
The casting choices of van Kampen reveal her intention to tackle both race and gender in this production with a diverse cast. The figures of authority are regendered; the Doge (Catherine Bailey) and Lodovico – thus becoming Lodovica (Badria Timimi) – are played by women. Moreover, the roles of Cassio, Othello and Emilia (Sheila Atim) are performed by black actors. This does have an impact on the racial politics of the play in so far as Othello is not the only dark-skinned character onstage.
Even though van Kampen cast Rylance, who had been the Globe artistic director in the 1990s and early 2000s, as Iago, it seems to me that the highlight of this production is Emilia. Her presence onstage is telling even without her saying a word. The actress is charismatic and majestic – her regal costumes enhance her skin colour by creating a chiaroscuro contrast with gold, green or red. She is made significant because of her natural elegance and presence. Contrary to Rylance’s Iago, Emilia stands out. She appears as a strong-willed woman daring to defy her husband’s authority. Her significance in the production is also emphasised at the end of the performance in so far as she is the very last one to leave the stage, after the bed carrying Desdemona’s corpse is taken away. In this play, the main character after Othello seems to be Emilia – whose presence onstage offers a contrast to Desdemona. The latter is submissive, obedient and accepts the fate her husband chooses for her, whereas Emilia is defiant, determined and rebellious. In this performance, Emilia is more mysterious and charismatic than her husband – as if she stole Iago’s thunder.
As Cassio is played by a black actor, it creates a specific dynamic with Othello as performed by Holland. The otherness of Othello does not appear first and foremost through skin colour even if Holland is a black actor. Interestingly, van Kampen relied on another racial marker to marginalise Othello from the rest of the Venetian community. Holland is an American actor playing Othello with a cast speaking with an English RP accent. His American, deep-South accent is the only characteristic isolating him from the other characters – van Kampen chose to resort to the traditional visual racial marker of the skin colour but she added an aural one, thus exploring the connection between accent and race. Holland’s Othello is elegant, charming and loving with Desdemona. Public displays of affection are numerous as Desdemona and Othello keep on kissing and hugging each other, at least in the first part of the play.
Rylance performs Iago as a little, innocuous man who does not stand out. His offhand delivery does not make him seem convincing; he is not menacing but foolish and farcical. He looks like an ordinary middle-aged man, with no charisma or charm, who struggles to speak and falters. His performance calls to mind Sam Spruell’s in the McDougall 2017 production, since both Iagos come across as harmless, commonplace men whose motivations are even a mystery to themselves.
As Iago and Roderigo were negotiating at the end of Act 1, a spectator in the pit fainted, which stopped the performance. Rylance turned to the woman to ask if she was all right, asking the audience for medical help. As he raised his hand, he remained still until the woman was put on a stretcher to be taken care of. This incident, which lasted a few minutes, made Iago seem even more friendly and harmless for the rest of the performance. The spectators were more than willing to bond with Iago from the beginning. Many people laughed at the racist insults and comments of Iago and Roderigo – one may wonder if the reactionary, populist type has become so mundane and ordinary that it has become normal ever since Brexit started. Is Rylance’s acting a way to expose the banality of racism in our society? Possibly.
As a whole, comedy is quite significant in this production, which emphasises the farcical dimension of Iago and seeks to raise laughter among the spectators. Roderigo is turned into the laughing stock of the performance – almost constantly mocked by the audience that becomes increasingly and inconspicuously complicit with Iago. Donnelly underscores Roderigo's naivety and foolishness, which makes him the perfect target of mockery for the audience. During the improvised party organised by Iago to lure Cassio into a brawl in Act 3, the characters onstage start a lively, disorderly choreography with bawdy undertones. Iago appears as the foolish master of ceremony, bringing bottles of wine and playing the guitar to incite Cassio and the others to let loose.
This dancing episode anticipates to some extent the pas-de-deux epilogue performed by two dancers, a male and a female, representing Othello and Desdemona in a danced pantomime, choreographed by Antonia Franceschi. Their movements evoke the dialectics of love and hate, trust being the thin line between the two. At some point, trust is broken as the dancers slowly part ways.