By BRUCE DENNILL
Othello / Directed by Claire Mortimer / UJ Arts Centre, Auckland Park, Johannesburg
Durban company ThinkTheatre has, for many years, produced high-quality productions of the Shakespeare plays prescribed as setworks in South African schools. The company is currently performing Hamlet and Othello at the beautifully appointed theatre in the University of Johannesburg’s Arts Centre, which, ahead of every performance, is buzzing with groups of students, with their uniforms marking out the different schools that have brought their classes to watch. There is no better way to learn Shakespeare than to see it performed live – the language and the complexities of his plots are massively easier to comprehend when presented as intended, rather than trying to bridge the gap between page and stage via imagination only.
For a packed mid-week performance of Othello, a capacity crowd comprising classes from several different schools and a handful of other visitors sits, rapt, as an excellent cast stays focused and intense. The actors need to ride the perhaps predictable exclamations from the young audience whenever intimate relations between characters are hinted at or, indeed, whenever some of the attractive female cast members (Kaylee McIlroy as Desdemona and Kira Timm as Bianca both get whoops) make an entrance.
With the variable volume in the auditorium, there are occasionally moments when bits of onstage dialogue get lost – probably the case in Shakespeare’s day too – though the protagonists who spend most time on stage, Anele Situlweni in the title role and Jeremy Richard as Iago, are both charismatic and direct, with the latter particularly good at hitting the back wall with his projection. In fact, Richard’s performance highlights how much this play is Iago’s story as much as it is Othello’s, displeased as he is with his low ranking in Othello’s retinue and ambitious to gain power through guile and self-serving scheming.
Director Claire Mortimer’s pacey handling of both the material – youngsters can manage two hours without getting too restive, but more than that is likely inadvisable – and her cast makes this production punchy and dramatic. Even for audience members who are seeing the play for the umpteenth time, the cruelty of Iago, the tragedy of Desdemona’s arc, the flaws in Othello’s character and the other aspects of the multi-faceted story – including the many moments of sharp humour.
Power, corruption, greed, damaged relationships – all of these are themes as evident in households, newscasts and contemporary TV and theatre as they were in Shakespeare’s day and the ThinkTheatre company – McIlroy, Byron McNeil as Cassio and Danny Meaker as Roderigo add their notable performances to Situlweni’s and Richards’ – do a powerful job underlining the timelessness of this play and its subject matter.
