Sem título

Página 1

Visiting the New Globe Theatre was an excellent experience

and made 'Othello', extremely authentic. There was no lighting which is

traditional of Shakespeare. The actors relied on natural daylight to illuminate

the stage. Darkness in the script was shown through what was spoken such as

"what are you?" (who are you). The setting was also described in the

dialogue, keeping the traditional simple scenery that the Globe itself contains

all year round. The only alteration to the stage was the WW1 themed ladders and

spikes. This was not traditional, showing how they had adapted the play to be

set in WW1. Furthermore there was camouflage netting surrounding the audience,

drawing them into the action of the war and intense feelings between Desdemona

and Othello. The theme was confirmed by some excellent costumes. British

uniforms were worn by soldiers and women wore long dresses and ankle boots to

suit the fashion of the time. Brabantio's costume showed the authoritative

uniform of a gentleman, being dressed in a tailored suit accompanied by a

caine.

The cast

was made up of ten people, the actors had to double roles showing the diversity

of their abilities. Not only this, but they also provided the audience with

live music. They introduced the play with music of the time such as 'Pack Up',

common songs sung by soldiers in WW1. This set the scene and created the

atmosphere for the audience, it also encouraged involvement of the audience.

The actors were extremely talented and engaged the audience throughout. One of

my favourite characters was Roderigo, he was comic relief for the play. He

almost came across as slapstick comedy, despite his dark fate. He was puppy-like

and naively followed Lago's every word, this encouraged sympathy from the

audience. This was an interesting take on the character, if he had been more

serious the audience would have perhaps have felt glad of his death. He

contributed to the mess being made of Othello and Desdemona's relationship,

showing he was at the end of the day a bad guy. However clearly, due to his

idiotic behaviour, he had developed to be a lot of the audiences' favourite.

For me,

Othello's actor was not convincing. Some of his grand speeches had been cut,

this lessened his status as a tragic hero. He often came across very angry and

the transition from a nobleman to a distraught soul was not clear. His supposed

single fatal flaw of jealousy was not evident enough as he did not appear

'God-like' in the first place, therefore this minimised the tragedy. The actor

struggled with vocal control, for both soft and vicious. He did not attract all

the audience's attention whilst speaking as he did not have this divine aura

around him. Additionally when he was angry the majority of what he said came

out as a shout, therefore minimising the amount of texture and tones in his

speech.

Despite

this Othello had a few very convincing moments, for example his fit was

notable. He had excellent control of his actions at this point. By standing up

it was noticeable that other audience members also felt very tense at this

moment in the play. He managed to captivate the audience, leaving us very

concerned. Furthermore he had excellent stage chemistry with the actress of

Desdemona, their arguments were especially good. Where they were often very

close touching became an intimate gesture. For this reason the actors spread

themselves out across the stage during arguments. At times Othello and

Desdemona would stand on opposite sides of the stage, this really highlighted

the emotional separation by presenting it physically. The audience could feel

the tension, being stood between the two characters really involved us. It was

as if the audience was pushing the two characters apart creating an awkward

atmosphere for us.

Desdamona

is an excellent character and the actress did her justice. She captivated the

audience, especially with her song 'Willow'.

The audience were motionless throughout, reflecting the still mood. She filled

it with misery and sadness being very monotone, creating a sweep of sadness

across the audience. Scenes like this contrasted heavily to scenes such as the

fighting scene where Lago gets Cassio drunk. The scene was full of noise and

motion, with the actors hitting the make-shift table with mugs and chanting

"drink" repeatedly. This created an almost marching sound and as an

audience member made you want to also shout "drink" repeatedly. It

was a fun and manic scene full of action which quickly escalated into a fight.

The actors were very fluid in their movements, almost rolling into the next

move. Unlike many fight scenes in plays, it seemed as if every character was

fighting for a reason due to personal conflict with one another. It was a

really enjoyable scene to watch, and being so close to the action meant the

actors many times almost fell onto the audience leaving us to fear for our own

lives.