Shakespeare mistitled his great tragedy Othello, now percolating joyously from Classical Theatre Company. He should have called it Iago, for without doubt this play is his.
There’s no better Shakespearean role to sink one’s teeth into and tear it apart than one of his villains. Richard III, Lady Macbeth, Edmund are plum parts. Yes, his heroes speak eloquently but they can often shade toward dull. Hamlet philosophizes with the best of them, but he can’t make up his mind. He dithers. Even Shakespeare’s comic villains linger in the mind. Malvolio may be a prig, but he gets the best costume – those yellow stockings and crossed green garters. Caliban may be pathetic and sniveling, but what a beast.
But who among the classic baddies matches Iago in sheer deviltry? He is the cad of cads. Without apology, without scruples, this amoral “ancient” to his Moorish general goes on his dastardly mission to destroy his superior because he doesn’t get the promotion he thinks he deserves. Racism swirls through his poisoned plots. He’s as jealous of Othello as he hopes to make Othello. He wants fame, mistresses, reputation but turns these on their heads to destroy the Moor and the others he denigrates. He takes friendship and twists it on the rack.
Some interpretations underlay a subtext of sex to Iago’s fixation, either for Desdemona or Othello. Classical plays it straight, and that’s just as beguiling, especially when Mathew Keenan wraps his sinewy arms around the part. Magnificently slimy, he plays Iago cool. His credo, “I am not who I am,” chills us as he says it with icy deadpan. Then winks slyly at us. Try to stop me, he implies with a shoulder shrug. A company member for seasons, he turns this role into a career capstone. He completely gets it, and it’s a wonder to watch him command the stage. He’s ironic, subversive, and gleefully wicked, all tinged with a knowing Irish brogue. He’s deliciously evil.
Keegan raises the barre for his fellow players, and mostly they match him. Most commendable of all is how comprehensible the text is. Praise for director John Johnston for keeping the dialogue crisp and clear and the action accompanying it equally clear. We understand Shakespeare’s bejeweled language like it’s a modern translation.
Brandon Carter, Houston Theater Award-winning Best Supporting Actor for Rec Room’s Death of a Salesman, is a lean and wiry Othello. He travels from love-besotted to fiery jealous fury with distinction, but something is missing. He smolders, but never burns. He’s a bit slight, not Shakespeare’s north African brute tamed then undone by misguided love. He doesn’t look like a war-hardened general. He’s hot to trot whenever he sees Desdemona, that’s apparent, but the fierce warrior is absent. He speaks beautifully, but that disconnect distances.
Christian Tannous takes hot-headed Cassio up a notch and brings extra dimensions with his detailed interpretation. Benjamin McLaughlin, as patsy Rodrigo who unwillingly falls for Iago’s wiles, is entirely sympathetic as he slowly disintegrates. Cat Thomas is a dewy Desdemona, in love with this foreigner who has bewitched her with his history. Strong and independent, she’s one of Shakespeare’s distinct creations. She opposes her father and speaks her mind. Her final scene with Emilia, Iago’s belittled wife (Olivia Knight, wonderful) where they discuss the constraints on women and if either of them would cuckold their husbands, is trippingly played by both. Shakespeare knew exactly how to tweak his own world’s patriarchy.
Classical sets the play in an army setting, intimately conjured by Jodi Bobrovsky with corrugated siding, a truck’s back doors, and foot lockers moved into desks, a bed, or a table. Jonathan Harvey’s sound design is effective with gulls cawing over the Cyprus harbor, far off thunder, and electronic thrum during the murder scene to ramp up the drama. Edgar Guajardo’s subtle lighting sets the mood with warm or sharp chiaroscuro. But it’s John Johnston’s direction that’s the payoff. The drama flows with a swift efficiency while it ebbs and flows. The fight scenes look real, the soldiers’ camaraderie isn’t forced, and the action doesn’t stop. There is a lightness to it all that turns the tragedy even deeper. This is Johnston’s most masterful work.
Others in the cast who double up roles are Snow Deera, Danny Hayes, Mark X. Laskowski, and Tom Long. Even standing off to the side, watching his machinations go into effect, Iago is front and center. Always one step ahead of everyone else, he’s a gleeful Mephistopheles. Shakespeare spins him into theater history. Classical and Keenan bring him to deadly life.
Othello continues through May 7 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 2.30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at Classical Theatre Company at the DeLuxe Theater, 3303 Lyons. For more information, call 713-963-9665 or visit classicaltheatre.org. $10-$30.
