Synopsis

Othello, a Moor, falls in love with Desdemona but is broken by jealousy falsely encouraged. Shakespeare's most human play sets delicacy and power, trust and jealousy, love and hate, good and evil in stark and tragic opposition. Powerless in the face of their own self destructive instincts, the characters are caught on a downward spiral towards inevitable tragedy.

Our Review:

26 October 2012

The cosy but business-like Jack Studio, part of the rather splendid Brockley Jack pub in South London, works well for this pared down Othello which has a cast of nine and runs for just two hours including interval.

No longer are we in the racist streets of Venice and a claustrophobic military base in Cyprus. Instead, director Jennifer Lunn takes us to an isolated, knife-blighted, gang-ruled London housing estate. Thus Ntonga “Tango” Mwanza’s Othello becomes an exotic immigrant and former child soldier from Congo with many a romanticised story to tell. Iago (Jamael Westman) is jealously embittered by a lifetime in care.

The problem is that – although Hayley Burke's concrete graffiti-infested set and the hoodies and jeans hint at it – there is no way the audience can work out the finer points of the interpretation without reading the programme notes.

[WOS_QU@TE]#I'm pretty sure no-one on such an estate would own or care ...

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