National Theatre Othello Review

Jealousy, love, hate, deception and treachery lie at the heart of William Shakespeare’s Othello, and the National Theatre’s rendition brings these themes to life in a vibrant and gripping way. This production is fast-paced, provocative, and coherent. With an ensemble that encompasses various ethnicities, Othello’s race is largely irrelevant here. Instead, the tragedy of Lester’s dignified general is that he is a military man – he loves his vivacious young wife Desdemona (Olivia Vinall), but he really doesn’t understand her, or much about life outside of tight army power structures. His insecurities make him an almost easy target for Kinnear’s dubious Iago – an edgy, chain-smoking manipulator, intent on revenge. Director Nicholas Hytner has dragged Shakespeare's renaissance tragedy into the 21st Century with a contemporary, gritty setting, while still maintaining a rigorous attention to clarity of language. Venice in the opening scenes is a non-descript place and it is only with the departure to Cyprus that the military aesthetic of the production comes to full fruition. Most of the action takes place in the middle of the night, under disorientating arc lights or inside sterile pre-fab army command buildings. Helicopters whir overhead. The sets slide and advance like tanks. Shadowy and devoid of bright colours, the production helped to focus attention on the tense drama that unfolded on stage, and made Shakespeare seem fresh and accessible. Adrian Lester is powerful and poignant in the eponymous role of the doomed general. His eloquence and articulation contrast strikingly with Kinnear’s flat London vowels, as Othello reveals with oratorical skill how he wooed Desdemona with exotic tales. Roderigo, a character who read quite bland in the text, obtained a whole other life on screen. Tom Robertson's interpretation was of a blundering, injudicious man clad in chinos. His overbearing naïveté offered comic relief during some of the more serious scenes. Lyndsey Marshal gave a very powerful performance as Emilia, caught between her husband Iago and her mistress Desdemona, and magnificently led the final scene. Iago is often regarded as Shakespeare’s greatest villain; a trusted subordinate of Othello’s who wrecks the general’s life and marriage because he's been passed over for promotion. Usually he’s portrayed as unhinged; but Kinnear presents a far more unnerving interpretation. His ‘villainy’ is evident from the opening scene when he casually coaxes a cigarette from Roderigo and so smoothly that you scarcely notice it, slips the pack in his own pocket. When planting the pernicious seeds of jealousy in Othello’s ear, Kinnear’s Iago delivers all the most crucial lines as throwaways, secure in malign confidence that the Moor will register their full implication. His bravado and false comradeship are those of a football hooligan, and his banter fails to conceal a festering misogyny. In Hytner's vision, Desdemona is the only civilian on the base - Emilia has been made into a serving soldier - and this really emphasizes how out of place Desdemona is in this unwelcoming setting of concrete blocks. She has clearly underestimated this expedition to Cyprus with the Venetian army: she lands on base with a bright blue backpack, half the size of the soldiers’, which she thoughtlessly hands off to Emilia before jumping tactlessly into Othello’s arms. Desdemona’s character was already flawed, and with such strong lead performances, Olivia Vinall fell quite flat and proved to be one of the weaker members of the cast. Everything about the National Theatre’s Othello is clear, clever and comprehensible.