Review: Othello, RSC, at Northern Stage

Feb 19 2009 by Josh Farrington, The Journal

BEN JONSON once said Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for all time” and this RSC version of Othello is one that resonates with eternal themes.

Jealousy, that green-eyed monster, is most commonly cited, but it’s fear and hatred that really underpin the play, two emotions that are all too prevalent in modern society.

Michael Gould’s Iago is a character drenched in both. Though he sheds no new light on what makes Iago tick – one of the great unanswered questions of literature – he does provide a thoroughly creepy spectre: nasty, groping and all too plausible.

Like many Iagos, his quicksilver tongue becomes dangerously alluring, stealing the limelight and pushing the title character into the background.

Patrice Naiambana as Othello struggles to take centre stage for much of the play, with too many clumsy deliveries clashing with his strong, physical performance.

Only when he’s twinned with the refined softness of Natalia Tena’s Desdemona does he really begin to shine, the two tempering each other in action and rhythm to become a captivating unit.

Desdemona’s death is rendered beautifully, eschewing the supposed tenderness that makes so many productions pathetic and cloying. Director Kathryn Hunter staged this as it should be – gasping, brutal and haunting.

The sparse set, illuminated with a few thoughtful touches, serve to emphasise this bleakness.

The skeletal version of a Venetian bridge that overshadows the action is similarly elegant – constantly broken and re-set, its steps to nowhere echo the gaps, or yawning gulfs, between the characters and their words.

And if the vaguely 1950s setting fails to add anything of interest, it doesn’t really matter. Othello’s not for one time. It’s forever.

Josh Farrington