Marshall Tankersley

Who do you trust the most? Is it a loved one? Is it a friend? Is it someone who you think is a friend? What would you do if you discovered that they not only were not a friend, but also your worst enemy and plotting your destruction? Such is the dilemma facing Othello, military hero of Malta. While he confides in his seemingly trustworthy agent Iago, he has no idea that Iago is intent on playing him against his closest friends (especially his wife) and, in turn, them against him. With such a depth of drama and passion, it is intriguing that Shakespeare’s play Othello would find itself as one of the lesser-known entries in the Shakespearian canon: it is the kind of a work that must be seen to be truly experienced, especially in such a grand production as Othello 2020, put on by the students of Anderson University in early March 2018.

The Anderson play impresses from the moment one enters the staging area. A low haze of fog hangs in the air, while darkly colored lights dance down from the ceiling. Four television screens are positioned on each of the four walls of the performance arena, with the stage itself taking up the very center, dividing the seating in half and placing those sitting at the forefront almost in the middle of the action. This version of Othello has been both updated for modern times, and modified for postmodern fears. Instead of taking place in 16^th Century Malta, Anderson’s version occurs in a Malta consumed by fear and Orwellian distrust. Cameras line the streets, and conversations are discreetly monitored. The guards in the play take on a distinctly menacing appearance with their bulletproof vests and openly-carried firearms, while Iago (the main villain and spy) uses his makeup to place a tattoo of a giant red eye on the right side of his head, symbolizing his job as the constant and malevolent watcher. The four screens around the auditorium are linked to four cameras placed neatly above them, and show off stylized footage of the actors and actresses in the midst of their performances. This creates a neat and immersive effect, and only serves to heighten the idea that something is very, very rotten in Malta.

The adaptation of the play was quite interesting as well. In many ways, the play could almost be called Iago and not Othello; Iago is the one whom the audience spends the most time with, and who the audience is treated to internal monologues from most often. Iago is the one whose plans the audience is privy to from the very start, and it is Iago’s journey that is followed most keenly. This pursuit of the anti-hero is a very interesting direction to take the story, and again helps to convey to the audience the sense of fundamental wrongness about the situations the various characters find themselves in. Still worse is the feeling one gets when Iago’s plans are finally brought to bloody fruition, as the words and suggestions of unfaithfulness in Othello’s ear drives him to brutally murder his wife. Othello has already been responsible for the attempted murder of Othello’s lieutenant (and the execution of his own agent tasked with the assassination) and he continues later to murder his own wife who seeks to expose his foul deeds. Othello, too, driven to utter despair at the realization of what he has done at the hands of such callous manipulation, commits suicide. Only Iago survives, safe in the custody of the Maltan security forces, yet he is still alive when many a braver soul has passed on before him. The injustice of what he has done is left ringing in the ears and hearts of the audience long after the final curtain call.

The performance of the play was very well done. The principal actors for Othello (James Hall), Othello’s wife  Desdemona (Megan Rosener), and Iago (Ian Coulter) all pull their roles off with style and gusto, drawing the audience into believing and empathizing with their respective roles in the play. As Othello and Desdemona begin, newly wed and madly in love, the audience is led to feeling deeply for them. That is why it stings all the deeper when Iago’s manipulation of Othello leads to Othello striking and verbally abusing his wife later in the play, a scene that (thanks to the acting skill of the performers) is felt as keenly as a knife to the gut. Iago’s monologues detailing his inner thoughts and plans are pulled off with a nice combination of both suave confidence and oily evil. The audience is always reminded that Iago is a devil; a personable, charming devil perhaps, but one with more than a whiff of sulfur about his person. The choreography of the play was beautifully done as well, especially in the middle of the play. One scene calls for a bar fight to take place between Othello’s lieutenant (overly imbued with liquid courage) and all of the other drunken individuals populating the bar. The fight scene is one that would fit comfortably in a Hollywood action movie, with breakable props being used to simulate actual combat and choreography that almost makes one believe the fight is real. It is truly an impressive sight to behold.

All in all, Othello 2020 is not only one of the best Shakespeare plays performed in the Upstate in recent years, but also one of the best modernizations of Shakespeare’s works in general (including even such triumphs as David Tennant’s Hamlet in the estimation). This is not a stylistic choice done simply because the director felt he could do it; rather, it plays into the very nature of the story and is pulled off with such stylish imagination that one cannot help but love it.