MORE OTHELLO REVIEWS!

Iago: The Story of Othello
By Dustin Bittel
            Sin. The root of all villainy and no villain in the world of literature is quite as cunning, manipulative and infamous as Iago.  Iago is the primary antagonist in William Shakespeare’s “Othello” and oddly enough he appears to be the central character in the adaptation of the play performed by Iowa Western Community College.
            The play was adapted and directed by Shea Saladee and was an artistic approach to the classic tragedy.
            The set, designed by Brent Froning, was rather bland. It consisted of seven boxes of varying size on top of several platforms to elevate them off the floor. The entire set was painted white and offered little for the audience to look at, leaving much of the work to the actors to keep the audiences attention. The set gave no context of the setting of the play and separated the actors by making it seem like each of the actors where standing on their own pedestals for display. This restricted the actors from interacting with each other and from moving from their spot. This was mostly likely an artistic choice since a set of this caliber leaves nothing to desire for or for the imagination.
            The lighting, designed by both Saladee and Rick Goble, consisted mostly of spots on each of the pedestals to illuminate each actor as they spoke.
Saladee also designed the sound for the show which seemed to be the same music on a loop lightly underscoring the entire play.
            Costumes, designed by Lora Kaup with the help of Kendra Newby, seemed modern and the result of an artistic choice. The four men each wore a black military uniform with a colored handkerchief in their right breast pocket. This would be fine but there were some parts were missing from the uniform. The left sleeve of each of the uniforms was nowhere to be seen but the worst part was the missing chunk of the right-side belly area. It highlighted an area of the body that most people aren’t comfortable with showing, their stomach. The women were more covered then the men which begs the questions. Are the men “exposed” to show they are warriors or are they to designed to jar the audience?
            Before the play begins, the actors came on to stage one-by-one in intervals, took their place on their pedestal and began to strike poses. The movement of the poses and position of the characters are clearly supposed to represent some action or perhaps the “sin” the character is supposed to represent but it was very puzzling and hard to interpret.
            Once the play does begin, the actors recite a chant Greek chorus style, to set up the theme of sin and how each of the seven characters represent one of the Seven Deadly Sins and ask for forgiveness. The chant is once again cited at the end of the play and the Greek chorus elements can be seen throughout the performance as the characters, not engaged in the scene, repeat key words.    
            Iago, portrayed by Jackson Newman, then proceeds to monologue like the villain he is and sets up the performance. It is with this first monologue, and his many others, that make Iago the central character of the story. He has as a clear motivation, goal and obstacle to overcome. This also causes Iago to fulfill the role of villain again by setting the play in motion. A good story does not happen without conflict and what better way to start conflict then by having a villain pursue some envy filled quest to ruin the honorable and brave Othello. His story and performance stood out the most while the rest left much to be sought for.
            The performance largely consisted of the actors addressing the audience as they delivered their lines without directly interacting with each other. This is clearly another artistic choice but it distracted from the story since the audiences had to look from one actor to the next and resulted in what some people might just call “line-readings” because the actors can only rely on what they hear from the other actors to base how they will reply next instead of getting the full emotion of acting with someone. If the characters had the chance to interact and react off of each other, the performance would have a much more dramatic tone to it that would have improved the entire performance.
            The separation did allow for some cool moments and tricks. One moment is when Desdemona, portrayed by Mati Phelps, is having to change for bed so she removes her petticoat herself while Emelia, portrayed by Kendra Newby, mimes undoing it. There is also a scene where Iago snatches a handkerchief from Emelia but in order to do so he must pull his out of his front pocket, quickly and discreetly as Emelia tosses hers. The fluid motion of these moments made up for the lack of interaction.
            Every production is different depending on the viewer and IWCC’s adaptation of “Othello” is one of those productions that relies on the viewer to decide if the adaptation works for them or not.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Iago: The Story of Othello
By Dustin Bittel
            Sin. The root of all villainy and no villain in the world of literature is quite as cunning, manipulative and infamous as Iago.  Iago is the primary antagonist in William Shakespeare’s “Othello” and oddly enough he appears to be the central character in the adaptation of the play performed by Iowa Western Community College.
            The play was adapted and directed by Shea Saladee and was an artistic approach to the classic tragedy.
            The set, designed by Brent Froning, was rather bland. It consisted of seven boxes of varying size on top of several platforms to elevate them off the floor. The entire set was painted white and offered little for the audience to look at, leaving much of the work to the actors to keep the audiences attention. The set gave no context of the setting of the play and separated the actors by making it seem like each of the actors where standing on their own pedestals for display. This restricted the actors from interacting with each other and from moving from their spot. This was mostly likely an artistic choice since a set of this caliber leaves nothing to desire for or for the imagination.
            The lighting, designed by both Saladee and Rick Goble, consisted mostly of spots on each of the pedestals to illuminate each actor as they spoke.
Saladee also designed the sound for the show which seemed to be the same music on a loop lightly underscoring the entire play.
            Costumes, designed by Lora Kaup with the help of Kendra Newby, seemed modern and the result of an artistic choice. The four men each wore a black military uniform with a colored handkerchief in their right breast pocket. This would be fine but there were some parts were missing from the uniform. The left sleeve of each of the uniforms was nowhere to be seen but the worst part was the missing chunk of the right-side belly area. It highlighted an area of the body that most people aren’t comfortable with showing, their stomach. The women were more covered then the men which begs the questions. Are the men “exposed” to show they are warriors or are they to designed to jar the audience?
            Before the play begins, the actors came on to stage one-by-one in intervals, took their place on their pedestal and began to strike poses. The movement of the poses and position of the characters are clearly supposed to represent some action or perhaps the “sin” the character is supposed to represent but it was very puzzling and hard to interpret.
            Once the play does begin, the actors recite a chant Greek chorus style, to set up the theme of sin and how each of the seven characters represent one of the Seven Deadly Sins and ask for forgiveness. The chant is once again cited at the end of the play and the Greek chorus elements can be seen throughout the performance as the characters, not engaged in the scene, repeat key words.    
            Iago, portrayed by Jackson Newman, then proceeds to monologue like the villain he is and sets up the performance. It is with this first monologue, and his many others, that make Iago the central character of the story. He has as a clear motivation, goal and obstacle to overcome. This also causes Iago to fulfill the role of villain again by setting the play in motion. A good story does not happen without conflict and what better way to start conflict then by having a villain pursue some envy filled quest to ruin the honorable and brave Othello. His story and performance stood out the most while the rest left much to be sought for.
            The performance largely consisted of the actors addressing the audience as they delivered their lines without directly interacting with each other. This is clearly another artistic choice but it distracted from the story since the audiences had to look from one actor to the next and resulted in what some people might just call “line-readings” because the actors can only rely on what they hear from the other actors to base how they will reply next instead of getting the full emotion of acting with someone. If the characters had the chance to interact and react off of each other, the performance would have a much more dramatic tone to it that would have improved the entire performance.
            The separation did allow for some cool moments and tricks. One moment is when Desdemona, portrayed by Mati Phelps, is having to change for bed so she removes her petticoat herself while Emelia, portrayed by Kendra Newby, mimes undoing it. There is also a scene where Iago snatches a handkerchief from Emelia but in order to do so he must pull his out of his front pocket, quickly and discreetly as Emelia tosses hers. The fluid motion of these moments made up for the lack of interaction.
            Every production is different depending on the viewer and IWCC’s adaptation of “Othello” is one of those productions that relies on the viewer to decide if the adaptation works for them or not.