Lenny Henry’s Othello, New Vic Theatre
Hyped up to its eyeballs, I was looking forward to settling down in the New Vic to watch a blow-away performance. I was sorely disappointed. Rather than an imaginative reprise of music and dance which Northern Broadsides so successfully achieved in their last production (Romeo and Juliet), I was greeted by a perfectly ordinary set design and directorial concept.
Rutter’s decision to stage the tragedy in an empty space, for me did not pay off. Instead of being wowed by the somewhat mediocre acting I was left hungry for more imagination and… well at least some gimmicks attached to the play to make it more relevant to me. The costume worked for the purposes of Rutter’s simple story-telling version of Shakespeare’s monumental tragedy.
The acting itself presented some good characterisation. Lenny Henry portrayed a confident warrior, his resonant voice lending a gritty and pragmatic tone to his performance. Sometimes Henry let his emotions run away with him and instead of allowing the poetry of the play to speak for itself, many lines were rushed which changed the semantics of the piece. The star of the show was clearly Conrad Nelson with his serpentine interpretation of Iago. His false niceties were both chilling and hysterically funny in parts, which was a frightening allure for such an evil character.
Although both Henry and Nelson made for engaging, if not always clear, viewing the weakness of the piece were the female characters. The female actors playing Emelia and Desdemona brought nothing fresh to the roles and as an audience member I found myself praying for a remote control so I could fast forward some of the cringeworthy and fragmented delivery of the two actresses.
Northern Broadsides’ Othello was by no means a poor production. It was enjoyable as an “ordinary”, piece of theatre that played on straight story telling rather than theatrical experimentation. The highlight was the drinking sequence where Broadsides’ had devised a witty musical accompaniment in an attempt to modernise the text. Apart from some sparkles of chemistry between characters however I found myself let down by the unsatisfying production which was hyped up to be a masterpiece.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Acting, Shakespeare. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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