Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (STNJ) enters the Autumn portion of their season with William Shakespeare’s masterful “Othello.”  Even in a situation that is seemingly black and white, nothing is clear.
In Shakespeare’s time, people recognized a concept that many are returning to consider–that race is a cultural construct rather that pervasive, persuasive genetic difference.  There is the flawed hero, the lover whose trust is so easily overturned by a so-called friend, when his lady love is not in the room.  We have the arch villain and we have the sweet, loving woman who is betrayed by the one she loves most–and while this story could easily be ripped from today’s headlines, these hearts brimming with passion and pain tell their story that is generations old, generations told.
STNJ has mounted a production with a spare set, subtle lighting and beautiful costumes. Bonnie Monte chose this show well and Lindsay Smiling as soldier-diplomat Othello, contrasted with Robert Cuccioli’s vigorously earthy and dyed in the wool evil Iago, are perfect together. We know all of what’s coming, but it’s like a bloody car crash–we cannot take our eyes away. Through all five acts, the hoped-for deus ex machina never comes, and we are as brutalized afterward as those who remain standing.
Lindsay Smiling’s Othello is orotund and brooding. Twin towers of dismay figure prominently between his brows and he’s always thinking, pondering, ruminating. Everything seems so clear to him, and he’s the man of the hour–several hours, and that makes Iago hate him with acetylene ferocity. Bill Christ, as Brabantio, squares off with Othello over Desdemona like two gladiators—father and lover, each as impassioned in wanting what’s best for her and each feeling the certainty of his own view as they lock horns. Desdemona has made her choice. Their interchanges should be accompanied by the crackle of lightning, as the fabric of what went before is rent beyond repair. Othello prevails at that moment. But the future has much in store. Othello’s transformation, evolution, degradation are all so subtle that when his madness finally bubbles to the surface it paces and explodes with feline grace and power.
Desdemona’s passions for her husband run like a swollen spring river, but their limerance phase doesn’t last very long. Victoria Mack’s Desdemona is ethereal, floating, but with purpose, as contrasted with the striding Othello. Her touch, both emotionally and physically, is all the more stirring to him for its butterfly nature, lighting with grace. His nobility is enhanced by her auburn and ivory presence and, when he changes, you can easily see Desdemona descend from basking in the light of Othello’s love to shrinking from the dark, dark coldness that emanates like a possessed spirit from him. And when the ultimate betrayal comes, her whole body evokes her shocked disbelief at his change, refusing to relinquish its light to his wrath until her spirit is literally wrung from her body. Brilliant!
Though the play is called “Othello,” it should be called “Iago.” Soliloquizing as much as Hamlet, Iago is seducing himself with pipe dreams of grandeur, after becoming drunk with his designs on power, if not power itself. Cuccioli plays Iago as viscerally evil. Transcending mean-spiritedness, he is a virtuoso in playing people for his own ends by using what they want most. While we sit in stunned disbelief at how easily Iago gulls those around him, his slippery unction leaves a bitter and sometimes coppery aftertaste, one that will still be there when you awaken.
The cast also includes Jon Barker as Cassio, whose portrait of a man, loyal literally to the death, to his general, is laced with humor and something that is refreshing, after the roiling darkness of Iago. In Barker’s hands, Cassio is that truly good man–not perfect, but the right man for any of Othello’s, situations and he’s clearly on his way up. But Iago stirs the pot and swirls people’s destinies–bubble, bubble, toil and trouble–and trouble there is indeed. Cassio’s good nature and gravitas make him a character to watch.
Emilia, Desdemona’s lady in waiting, is Jaqueline Antaramian and her star turn comes in the final act, when the woman, doing her best to please all, sees that she was the unwitting instrument of the undoing and death of her lady. While doing her best to counsel the younger woman through the entire chain of events, Emilia should perhaps have listened to that still, small voice inside that was nagging at her throughout. But love may make one deaf as well as blind and Emilia’s husband, Iago, had all of these flies ensnared in his woven web of deceit. And Emilia’s love for Iago is as plain as his evil–they are both powerless to fight their imperfections.
This play is one of Shakespeare’s longest as well as arguably one of his best. If you’ve never seen it performed, this is a production that will resonate. If you have seen it, the experience of seeing it done by these actors at STNJ is so good that it will roam your brain for days after you’ve seen it. Make your reservations now.
“Othello” is playing through October 2.   For tickets or more information, call the box office at 973/408-5600 or visit www.ShakespeareNJ.org.    The F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre is located at 36 Madison Avenue, at Lancaster Road, in Madison or a short walk from the train station. Madison has a number of really fine restaurants nearby, so make a date and a reservation. You’ll have a lot to digest, and you’ll need the time to do it.