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Innovative works of live performance for multicultural audiences.
Shaping Ideas into theatrical events.
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Innovative works of live performance for multicultural audiences. Shaping Ideas into theatrical events.
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The Masks of Othello
Theater review: ‘Masks’ traces Othello’s history in black and white: Director Carlyle Brown challenges racial attitudes by examining how the Shakespearean character has evolved through the ages.
Star Tribune Published: May 11, 2002 By Graydon Royce
Was Shakespeare a precursor of multiculturalism?
Playwright and director Carlyle Brown constructs a vigorous, intelligent meditation on Shakespeare, theater, race and society in “The Masks of Othello: A Theatrical Essay.” The piece, which opened Thursday at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, traces the evolution of the Moor of Venice from a character portrayed by white actors under ambiguous masks to a role that has become the property of African-Americans.
The Elizabethan imagination, Brown notes in his program, “lumped all people south of the Mediterranean into one black and godless tribe.” So just whom did Shakespeare have in mind when he created this character and suffered the vilification of critics? For that matter, what did Othello do to audience expectations and reactions?
Brown essentially takes a chronological look at the actors who performed the role, white and black, starting with Richard Burbage and running up through the 20th-century portrayals by Paul Robeson, Laurence Olivier and James Earl Jones.
Juxtaposed are reactions to the performance from two black clad actors who represent critics through the ages.
As a theatrical event, the piece drifts along as an interesting frolic until actor James A. Williams takes the stage as Ira Aldridge, the first black Othello in the 19th century. Simply by who he is and what he represents, Williams transforms the intellectual response to visceral reaction. The power and authenticity of his portrayal prick the question of colorblind casting and challenge our racial attitudes. Why does he seem so powerful? Is it simply the actor? Or the color of his skin, the tone of his voice? Or does he conjure within our psyche centuries of lore and suppositions? Whatever the answer, Brown’s essay assumes fresh legs at this point. This question persists as one of the critics -reacting to Robeson’s Othello- states, “The Negro is absolutely essential for the full meaning of the play.”
First rate actors bring Brown’s work to life. In addition to Williams’ potent and regal bearing, Christopher Gabriel portrays the white Othellos with Shakespearean brio and energy. Gwendolyn Schwinke shows a delicate modulation as Desdemona. And Brent Doyle shares his classic face and two eyes that seem at once to be soulful and soulless as Shakespeare and Iago. Tom Sherohman and Nancy Marvy are the critics – more mouthpieces than full characters, yet both manage to make their arguments interesting and illuminating.
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