Othello (2013)

As I’ve said, since I signed up for National Theatre at Home, not all the plays I’ve watched have been winners, at least not for me. Certainly, they’ve all been well-made and well-performed, but that doesn’t mean they’ve all held my interest. That’s the beauty of a streaming service, though, as opposed to paying $20 for an individual ticket and driving 60 miles to see it in a movie theater on a very particular Tuesday night – you can try a much wider variety of different plays, and if not all of them strike your fancy, so what? Sure, there will be some that are just all right, but there are also going to be plenty of gems.

Othello, a Black moor who’s risen from slavery to become a general in the Venetian military, becomes the target of an insidious plot. His ensign Iago, spurned for a promotion, schemes to unravel Othello’s life thread by thread. The plan has many facets, but they all revolve around a central goal: convince Othello that Desdemona, his new young (white) wife, is having an affair with Iago’s rival Cassio.

As far as Shakespeare goes, Othello is a special play for me. Aside from obviously being one of his most well known, it’s also one of the first that I ever read, and it’s fortunate enough to have multiple strong adaptations of it (the Laurence Fishburne/Kenneth Branagh film is great and served as my introduction to Branagh as a Shakespearean actor-director, and I also love the Chiwetel Ejiofor/Ewan McGregor audioplay that was recorded after they performed onstage together in London.) This production filmed for National Theatre Live is another knockout.

Modern costumes and sets, both of which create a sense of place in an understated manner, not drawing any attention away from the actors. Jonathan Bailey is a good Cassio, who’s in many ways the anti-Iago – upstanding and mostly guileless, effortlessly charming but prone to flailing when he’s caught on the wrong foot. I knew I recognized Bailey from something, and I discovered from IMDb that it was “Time Heist” from series 8 of new Who (IMDb also informs me that he’s on Bridgerton, which I know many people love.) Olivia Vinall plays Desdemona, carefully portraying the sanguine, naively romantic sides of her without letting her become insubstantial. I’ve seen Vinall in a National Theatre Live production before, playing the lead in Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem. I’ve always loved Emilia as a character, and although I’m not familiar with Lyndsey Marshal, she great in the role, worldly and jaded but protectively devoted. Rory Kinnear, who I remember from the Masterpiece miniseries of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, is a good Iago. He’s gruff and frank, but you still see why he’s able to fool so many people for so long (just don’t play a drinking game for every time someone in the play calls Iago “honest” – you won’t survive.)

The headline, though, is Adrian Lester’s powerhouse performance as Othello. It can be frustrating to watch tragedies, because the characters are so engaging but you know they won’t get through it intact, and so you rail against the fatal mistakes you know they’re going to make. But in Lester’s immensely-capable hands, it’s fascinating to watch Othello’s downfall. From the quiet, dignified confidence of his first appearance, to his easy rapport and authority with his soldiers, to the brush-away denials that grow into seeds of doubt, to the wrenching ending, you can’t take your eyes off of him. I’ve loved Lester ever since I saw him as Oliver in the Branagh-directed As You Like It, and he’s spellbinding here. He’s one of those actors with a particular gift for speaking Shakespeare’s words in such a way that make them clearly comprehensible and genuine-sounding, while still bringing out the poetry and depth. It’s a gift to watch him perform, and as heavy as it is to follow him all the way to the end, the journey he takes to get there is worth every minute.

Warnings

Violence (including intimate partner violence,) sexual references, language (including racist and sexist insults,) drinking, and strong thematic elements.

Other Doctor Lives: Othello (2001)

I saw this TV-movie production years ago when I was on a bit of a Shakespeare kick. While not my favorite version of Othello (to be fair, the 1995 movie with Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagah is amazing, and I really like the audio recording of the 2007 production with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor too,) it’s an interesting take on the story and features some excellent performances, not least of which is Christopher Eccleston’s.

We’re in “modern retelling” territory here. When the London Metropolitan police commissioner is forced to resign after leaked racist remarks following the police killing of an unarmed Black man, assistant commissioner Ben Jago is primed to take over. But instead, they promote John Othello, a highly-honorable man and one of the few Black cops at the Met. Furious, Jago sets a plan in motion to destroy John’s career and his life. Through a series of subtle manipulations, he puts the screws to John, most significantly by trying to convince him that his new wife Dessie is sleeping with another officer.

Let’s get this out of the way first. Any modern retelling of a Shakespeare play has the potential to be really interesting in terms of how it reinvisions the story, and the performances can be great no matter what, but you’re not going to get the full “Shakespeare experience” with one of these. I’m not talking about productions or adaptations that merely put the play in modern settings – I’ve seen Shakespeare set in probably dozens of different times and places – but instead adaptations that physically change the particulars of the story, and more importantly, the language. This is a modern version of the story of Othello without the language of Shakespeare’s Othello, and especially where Christopher Eccleston is concerned, that’s a shame (he was in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Macbeth that was recorded for cinema airings in 2018, and I almost got to see it, but there was a huge snowstorm the day there was a showing 70 miles from my house. :tears:)

Still, even though it’s not “Othello-Othello,” there are some neat things going on. Unfortunately, the story of a police killing is just as timely today as it was in 2001, and it’s interesting to see John’s pull with the Black community, the way the higher-ups use him as a PR shield, and the dissent within his own ranks over holding the killers to account. In that way, I think the film’s exploration of race is done effectively. However, looking more personally at John’s relationships with Jago and Dessie, the topic of race is approached somehow explicitly and subtly at the same time. It feels conspicuous that the filmmakers don’t have a good grasp on that, and given that this was penned by Andrew “Jane Austen adaptation” Davies, it doesn’t surprise me. Not that I haven’t loved plenty of Davies’ work in the past – he wrote the Jennifer Ehle/Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice, for crying out loud! – but much of what I’ve seen from him are costume dramas in which there aren’t any people of color at all, and even when there are, I think it can be a greater challenge for white writers to write about racism in the present day as opposed to the past.

Plenty of familiar faces here. Our John Othello is played by Eamonn Walker, who I’ll always remember as Rev. Samuels on the short-lived Kings, and he brings dignity to the part of a man who’s being destroyed for having the “audacity” to rise above his “station.” Richard Coyle plays the Cassio stand-in Michael Cas, and I can honestly say I didn’t think of Jeff from Coupling the whole time he was onscreen, so well done there. Rachael Stirling (who I loved as Nan in Tipping the Velvet, also penned by Davies) plays Lulu, this movie’s version of Emilia, and while she does well with the role as written, the portrayal bums me out a little. I’ve always loved Emilia’s scenes with Desdemona in the play, but here, most of her scenes are in the context of Jago’s lover rather than Dessie’s friend. The film also features Keeley Hawes (another Tipping the Velvet alum – she played Kitty) as Dessie and Scottish Hey It’s That Guy! Bill Paterson as the disgraced police chief.

But we’re here, naturally, for Christopher Eccleston as Ben Jago. Iago is on my list of favorite Shakespeare characters, and although I still wish I could be watching Eccleston as actual Iago instead, he’s undeniably very good as Jago. Being the only character who soliloquizes to the camera, he winds up feeling the most Shakespearean of the bunch. As in the play, it’s fascinating to watch how he slyly nudges all the pieces into play for John’s ruin, coming at him from multiple angles.

I’ll admit, there are a few moments where Ecceston hits the “mad-eyed villain” note a bit too hard, especially right after John’s initial promotion, but he quickly tightens the reins on it. One of the most intriguing things about Iago is how thoroughly he disguises his own role in all this to everyone around him, and for the most part, Eccleston’s Jago is entirely convincing in his scenes with John, playing the part of the “concerned friend” who “reluctantly” whispers in John’s ear about his “suspicions” over Dessie. There’s something almost seductive in it, the way he dances just on the edge of accusations to make John draw it out of him even in the midst of John’s own denials.

Accent Watch

At first, I was a little torn between Northern and something more RP with possible accent slips. But I think what’s going on here is definitely intentional. Jago has a Northern accent, but it’s much softer than Eccleston’s own, likely a reflection of Jago trying trying to tone down his accent for class reasons (he makes a self-deprecating comment about how a “roughneck” like him is unlikely to be made commissioner.) His vowels always sound a little bit Northern, and the accent becomes more pronounced during his soliloquies, when he’s speaking directly to us and not playing a part for anyone.

Recommend?

In General – I think so. Even if it’s not my favorite Othello, it’s still an intriguing film that features good work from a lot of actors I like.

Christopher Eccleston – I would. Eccleston gives a really strong performance here.

Warnings

Sexual content, violence (including police brutality,) language (including racial slurs,) drinking, and strong thematic elements (including racism.)