Critque Of Travelling Othello

In my opinion, the production of Othello we saw at the Teche was very well performed and set. In this critique, I will examine some choices made by the cast that didn't seem to fit with the awesomeness of the rest of the show.

First of, Costumes. While, most of the clothes worn, especially the military uniforms and Rodrigo's suit, were very fitting for the time period, Desdemona's (only) dress sucked. It looked as if it was made out of tissue paper or something similar.

While on the subject of setting, I liked the director's decision to adapt the play to a more modern era. The use of both guns and swords gives a sense of both traditionalism and spontaneous violence, inciting excitement in some places, and thought in others.

The changing of scenes was very well done, in my opinion. The fact that the cast moved props in-scene, while noticeable, did not interrupt the flow of the play. The only scene change done during dimmed lights (the preparing of Desdemona's bed) was also performed well, though it seemed to detract from the story one's attention had been focused on for the preceding hour, fairly killing the mood.

The cast were mostly great, with a few weak points. The weakest of these was Othello (Anthony) himself. While a decent actor, he was not quite up to the caliber a character like Othello required. His stage voice ended up sounding like a bad James Earl Jones voice-over, and his epileptic fits, instead of provoking concern, had me reaching for a jacket

On the other end of the spectrum, Iago was performed brilliantly, lending a major character a deeply touching persona. The actor was able be horrifyingly dark in some places, hilarious in others. (Insert Iago eyebrow raise here)

Tech-wise, the lighting was excellent. In some scenes, they cast perfect shadows over Iago's eyes, in others they created an ambient scene fit to strangle someone in. The varied uses