Review: Othello at the Guthrie Theater
Written by Jordan Pruszenski ‘16
April 19, 2014
When most people think of Shakespeare’s Othello they think of a classic tragedy. However, the Guthrie Theater’s production of Othello was surprisingly humorous. These comical choices allowed the audience to connect with the characters more and to become invested in their well-being. For example, the way in which Othello would childishly chase Desdemona and pick her up amid her shrieks of joy demonstrated their love for each other and explained why Desdemona had left her father to be with Othello, which was something that was missing in other productions of this play that focused more on the dramatic side of the play. Even the relationship between Iago and Othello was convincing, as the two teased and joked with each other as most friends do. This also made for a more dramatic contrast between the Iago that the audience saw with Othello and the Iago that was plotting his downfall.
Unfortunately, I felt that the cast took the jokes too far and that in the end the lightheartedness detracted from the power of the play. One such instance was directly after Othello had killed Desdemona. Othello removed the pillow from her face to determine if she was dead and then comically pronounced that in fact she was. This abrupt snap from the absolutely horrifying murder of a wife by her beloved husband to a dark comic relief by that same husband distracted the audience from a critical moment in the play. Not only did this distract the audience but it also took away from the powerful emotions that Othello is supposed to be feeling in this scene. If the character could just laugh off the death of his beloved wife, would he have really cared that she had slept with another man or would it have taken so long for Iago to convince Othello to kill her? Although having the comedic interactions between the main characters at the beginning set the play up for a very powerful and dramatic turn into tragedy, the execution of the final scenes were confusingly comedic which lessened the impact of Iago’s betrayal on the audience.
[We are grateful to the Elizabeth S. Thompson Memorial Fund for making these theater trips possible.]