OTHELLO coming to Cineplex Theatres in Ottawa September 26!!

Photo Courtesy of the National Theatre.

Reviewed by Henry Hitchings    http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/othello-nationals-olivier–theatre-review-8585510.html

Adrian Lester is a charismatic, dignified Othello. When jealousy grips him he seethes with the sort of fury that causes him to flip a table with a single flick of his wrist. But he brings a delicate grace to the role, and the crispness of his verse-speaking is admirable – a reminder, as if we needed one, of his great quality as a Shakespearean actor.

Rory Kinnear is mesmerising as Iago, the "honest" officer who is in fact Othello’s nemesis. He is capable of deadpan bluntness yet also of extravagant, eloquent contempt. Kinnear makes deception seem creepily amusing. He confides in the audience, flaunting his malign intelligence.

In Nicholas Hytner’s production, which is set in the present, the scenes between the leads always fizz. Othello’s integrity and vulnerability get wrapped in Iago’s web of hints and paradoxes, and Lester’s poise contrasts with Kinnear’s sickly intensity and occasional bursts of thuggish jubilation.

Usually the play is treated as an explicit picture of racial prejudice, but Hytner concentrates on its military details and merciless ironies. At first the atmosphere is almost corporate, as soldiers in civilian clothes go about their duties in boxy little offices. When the action moves from Venice to Cyprus, they are based at a stark compound. Helicopters whir overhead. Lights shine down from intimidating masts. Vicki Mortimer’s clever and deliberately ugly design creates an air of bleak claustrophobia, which is developed by Nick Powell’s stabbing, moody music.

In Cyprus, Olivia Vinall’s chaste Desdemona is the only hint of a life beyond military service. There’s not much room for her marriage to Othello to breathe, and in any case Iago is intent on stifling it. His ruses thrive in this tense environment.

Lyndsey Marshal brings a taut toughness to Iago’s wife, Emilia, who accidentally abets his scheming. Jonathan Bailey (recently seen in ITV’s Broadchurch) plays Cassio with a flawed charm, and Tom Robertson’s Roderigo is an enjoyably absurd fop.

What’s missing is grandeur – a sense of real nobility and exoticism. The modern setting reveals the play’s paranoid mood and uncomfortable humour but muffles the tragedy a little. Still, this is a distinguished, lucid production, and those who can’t get to see it at the National Theatre will have a chance to catch it in cinemas when it is shown as part of the NT Live programme on September 26.