Brilliant staging of the bar-room Bard in Othello

Fiona Mountford16 May 2015

Frantic Assembly’s stripped-down, revved-up take on race, sex and jealousy is the kind of production that makes you wish you’d never seen Shakespeare before.

What a thrilling, lifetime‑habit-forming introduction this would be, with its transposition of the iambic pentameter to an authentically grimy modern-day northern pub, where men are men, women are threatened and there’s not a doublet or hose in sight.

Co-adaptors and directors Scott Graham and Stephen Hoggett have sensibly streamlined the play, creating a 110-minute powerhouse for nine actors. Wittily, the pub — with its pool table, tired upholstery and bottles of blue alcohol — is The Cyprus, and the Turkish Fleet a rival gang of local troublemakers.

Othello is very much in control of his posse, and Desdemona seems magnetically drawn by his power. It’s a compelling set-up but it does lack that civic dimension, the anchoring sense of Othello having rendered sterling service to his adopted community.

The trademark style of the Frantics is an intense physicality, and while others have raved in the past, I’ve often found it intrusive, wishing that they’d stop writhing and concentrate instead on what they’re saying.

Here, though, the movement sections work like a dream, as they underscore two of the text’s key themes: the magnetic lure of sexual attraction and the casual, shocking violence of the men towards the women.

A long wordless opening sequence, during which Othello gives Desdemona that all-important handkerchief, establishes these tensions beautifully. The men brandish their pool cues like weapons of intent while the three women strut provocatively about in their tight designer tracksuits.

Desdemona (wonderfully feisty Claire-Louise Cordwell), Emilia and Bianca are constantly manhandled throughout the action, pinned up against walls and pushed down onto the pool table. We note with fresh ears how many of the play’s lines come from male mouths.

Jealousy rather than race appears to be the motivation for Charles Aitken’s underwhelming Iago but he conclusively poisons the mind of Jimmy Akingbola’s imposing, swaggering Moor. Othello and Desdemona are very much the alpha people of this backroom bar yet, with latent aggression oozing from every grotty corner, long-term romantic felicity was always going to be a long shot.
Until 22 November (0871 22 117 22, www.lyric.co.uk).

Othello
Lyric Hammersmith
Lyric Square, King Street, W6 0QL

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