Othello
2007 at the Old Rep Theatre, Birmingham
Cast
Othello … Cyril Niri
Iago … Neal Foster
Desdemona … Rebecca Santos
Bianca / Clown … Jane Riley
Cassio … David Blair
Roderigo … Paul Westwood
Emilia … Emma Christer
Lodovico …Mark Lingwood
Brabantio … Terence Booth
Montano … James Low
Perhaps my personal favourite of Shakespeare's plays, I was delighted when we were told it the one we would be studying for SATs and even more delighted when we were taken to see a performance of the show in Birmingham. Of course, while Othello is the titular character, the audience tends to become more enamoured with Iago, and this performance was no exception. Neal Foster, to my mind resembling a young Jonathan Pryce, was disarmingly charming in his scenes with the other characters, but truly fiendish when left to his own devices. Cyril Niri's Othello was cut a powerful figure, yet there is something inherent in the character that prevents the audience from feeling too much sympathy for him- he seems all too ready to accept Desdemona's guilt. Ultimately, for all his crimes, it is Iago that holds sway over the audience, Iago who leaves the strongest impression in the audiences memory.
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