The second in Synetic Theater’s “Speak No More” series, “Othello” is a brilliant psychological thriller, revealing with stunning simplicity the essence of Shakespeare’s work: the way a man’s mind may be curdled with jealousy, making him destroy that which he treasures most. Synetic begins its production with an overture. On a slave ship, Othello (Roger Payano) appears in chains. During a storm, he breaks free and is discovered on land by two Venetian soldiers, Iago (Philip Fletcher) and Cassio (Scott Brown). After Othello joins their army and shows his bravery battling the Turks, the Duke of Venice (Peter Pereyra) promotes Othello to general and Othello in turn chooses Cassio to be his lieutenant.
At that point Iago’s personality is literally split by jealousy. From that moment on, his every action, designed to ruin Othello, is played out by a fractured trio of Iagos: Fletcher, joined by Alex Mills and Irina Tsikurishvili. Othello has fallen in love with the beautiful Desdemona (Salma Shaw) and the envious Iago sets out to plant to the seeds of jealousy about her in Othello’s brain.
| Onstage |
| ‘Othello’ |
| Where: Synetic Theater, 1800 S. Bell St. |
| When: Through November 6 |
| Info: $45 to $55; 800-494-8497; synetictheater.org |
Splitting Iago into three parts not only underlines his broken emotional makeup. Anastasia Simes’ extraordinary costumes and makeup for the three Iagos (red and black clothing, hair and lipstick) exaggerate their physical characteristics, making them look unnatural, even unreal.
Simes’ abstract set is made up of triangular shapes, some steeply raked planes on the stage, some hung above and on the sides. There are no soft or natural shapes onstage except for human bodies. Everything else–from the decoration on the lords’ hats in Venice to the weapons of the Venetian army–is jagged, hard-edged.
The sense of the surreal is further carried out by director Paata Tsikurishvili’s use of technology. When Iago wants to impress Desdemona’s infidelity on Othello, photos are taken of a woman who might be Desdemona, seen from the rear. When those photos are shown to Othello, in a state of frenzy, he naturally believes that it is Desdemona.
Payano is a powerful Othello, whose distraction is as credible as his strength. Shaw complements Payano’s muscular performance with her delicacy and grace. The Tsikurishvili/Mills/Fletcher Iago is not only the embodiment of evil. It is also a source of humor in Iago’s scenes with Roderigo, played as a lovelorn fool by Vato Tsikurishvili. Emilia is portrayed artfully by Irina Koval.
But despite the strengths of its individual actors, this “Othello” succeeds mainly because of its extraordinary ensemble work, inspired by Paata Tsikurishvili and choreographer Irina Tsikurishvili. The result is a superbly cogent “Othello,” one that mines the basic mythic structure of Shakespeare’s tale to exhibit a new take on one of the oldest of passions.
