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.