DIRECTOR: Fred Abrahamse
CAST: Muntu Ngubane,Marcel Meyer, Melissa Haiden and Stephen Jubber
VENUE: Maynardville Open Air Theatre
UNTIL: February 21
RATING: ***
Despite Marcel Meyer’s stylish set and quirkily elegant costumes, as well as imaginative lighting by Faheem Bardien, this Othello remains a remarkably dour production. The reason is not hard to find; with a few notable exceptions, the performers speak their lines at one another in declamatory fashion, their interaction virtually non-existent.
In a drama wrought of pain and passion, this is a major flaw, particularly when the lead is its main perpetrator. Muntu Ngubane looks the perfect choice for the role of Othello – a tall, muscular, imposing presence of martial authority – until he utters his first words. Indistinct diction, and a limited range of facial expression, sap most of the life from his character’s speech, turning Othello’s rich lines into what could be taken for a student’s mechanical recital of Shakespearean script.
Given the length and breadth of director Fred Abrahamse’s experience, this apparent miscasting might be deliberate, an attempt to underscore the Moor’s cultural, racial, and linguistic “otherness” in the context of the society in which he lives, but it results in a performance unworthy of the role.
Meyer, as Iago, does not muster the requisite venom to convince as one of the Bard’s more notable villains; he simply looks too good-natured and his manner is too gentle, although – like Ngubane as Othello – he is well cast in terms of age and physical appearance.
When it comes to the female roles, it is a very different matter: both Melissa Haiden and Nicole Holm, as Desdemona and Emilia respectively, give stellar readings of their personae.
Haiden rings the changes effortlessly in the evolution of her complex character, capturing the defiant radiance of Othello’s willful young bride as convincingly as the growing insecurity attendant on her deteriorating marriage. Her vulnerability in the last act is heart-wrenching. Holm has a firm grasp of Emilia’s elusive nature and is consistently impressive in this difficult role, even managing to inject some humour into the proceedings on occasion.
Stephen Jubber does ample justice to the challenging part of Cassio, dealing intelligently with the paradox of a sympathetic anti-hero.
Among the secondary roles, Robin Smith as the blustering Brabantio, Daniel Richards as Ludovico, and Nicholas Dallas as the ineffectual Roderigo all deliver the goods to compensate in some measure for deficiencies elsewhere.