How is Cassio "doomed", What'sOnStage? His destiny in the play is to get a sore leg and become governor of Cyprus - in the context of the play, his doomed rating is pretty low!
Dom walked the line between evil bitterness and near-lovable scally perfectly. His Yorkshire accent washed over the dialogue with such finesse highlighting every word as a polished. Any charge that a Yorkshire accent is "out of context" is ridiculous when you remember that these Venetians are speaking 17th century English! Realism is a non-starter with Shakespeare.. all we can hope for is an actor who takes risks and finds a way to engage the audience - take a bow, Dom West. Peters did a fair job though some of his dialogue got lost. The girls were great. And an underrated comic turn by the bloke who played Rodrigue. - Sean
13 Oct 11
Sorry Witchy Lynne but I feel you have missed the point. Your desire to see Iago portrayed as, 'Shakespeare's most malevolent and evil character,' would surely produce a one dimensional pantomine villain? West brilliantly avoided this by showing the many faces of Iago's character and more importantly how others' perceptions of him allowed him to fool them all into beieving he was an honest, loyal man. West subtly added the layers of evil onto the characterisation so that by the end, the audience were also wondering how they could have been so easily duped into laughing at his earlier exploits. Peters, for me, gave a heartrending portrayal of an aging military man failing to cope with unknown emotions of loss, love and jealousy. Brilliant performances all round. - Chrissie
02 Oct 11
"put on Sheffield accent" er, that's where he comes from.
I do agree that the women were superb, and I found Clarke Peters to be indistinct a lot of the time, but Dominic West and Gwilym Lee were fantastic. Excellent production and much recommended, tickets now sold out. - Dark Star
30 Sep 11
Lily James was absolutely outstanding as Desdemona and the costumes and stage setting of this production were superb but I just cannot agree with the rave reviews for Peters and West. West played Iago as though he was a pantomime villain instead of Shakespeare's most malevolent and evil character. And the put on Sheffield accent became more and more irritating as the play went on because it was so out of context. Peters also veered between American, Jamaican and RP and in Othello's longer speeches was too often incomprehensible. The final death scenes were beautifully handled and Alexandra Gilbreath as Emilia was superb. Sorry Wire guys, the women stole the show from under your noses! - Witchy Lynne
