"Othello"

May 26, 2010 — I'm not really qualified to be a Shakespeare critic, but I do know what I like, and I liked the NorthEast Shakespeare Ensemble's performance of "Othello" at the Sawyer Center Theater at Colby-Sawyer College, New London, New Hampshire. This was not a student production, but a professional theater company with professional actors. There was thin attendance at today's performance, barely more than two dozen in the large, comfortable theater. The A/C was just barely able to overcome the 94-degree heat outside.

The only thing in the production I really objected to was the costumes, a mix of period dress and modern attire. Shakespeare is often done in modern dress and placed in modern settings, but I never saw the old and the new mixed before. Othello and Iago were dressed in period military garb, but some of the actors wore modern jackets and ties. Roderigo wore spats, and I'm pretty sure they didn't exist in the 16th and 17th centuries.

As far as the performance goes, I thought the acting in the early going was just a little stiff, but in Othello's final intense, powerful scenes, the actors were more than up to the challenge, and they were breathtaking.