Othello

Possibly not so sickly green.

The theatre was dark, gloomy and simplistic, similar to the prior expectations that filled the heads of the audience as the show commenced. Although as colour was introduced, many attitudes started to change. Othello, the classic Shakespearian tragedy presented by Bell Shakespeare, proved to exceed expectations with a marvelous, thought provoking and entertaining theatrical experience. Ambition, greed, and jealousy all things associated with the colour dark green, in addition to that, all things that were strategically crafted in order to be brought to life by Peter Evans, the design team as well as the wisely chosen team of actors.

“O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock The meat it feeds on” Othello primarily presents to us the theme of jealousy in a simplistic and spectacular way. The story starts as the Moor of Venice, Othello, returns from battle to the applause of the state as well as the unconditional love of the sweet and innocent Desdemona. Desdemona had married general Othello even without the blessing from her father, thus defying social convention in the sixteenth century. Iago, a soldier who is denied of a promotion from Othello then starts to develop a strong distaste towards him because of his rejection. Iago prays on the weak minded and manipulates Roderigo to help take down Othello. In a plot to take down Othello, Iago decides to convince him that Desdemona has committed adultery with Cassio, one of the Moors officers. Through multiple attempts to persuade Othello, Iago then starts to drive Othello mad from jealousy and he starts to hate both Desdemona and the accused, Cassio. Out of pure rage the innocent Cassio is viciously wounded under Othello’s request and shortly after Desdemona is dramatically strangled by Othello himself. Othello is later to find out that the plan was spiked through Iago in order to snatch power and then turns the knife upon himself, leaving the stage in a pure bloodbath.

Before the play commenced, Desdemona, one of the main characters within the play laid restlessly asleep on the stage with a green light of jealousy facing towards her as people flooded into the theatre. Having Desdemona on the stage created masses of tension and focus amongst the audience before the show commenced. There are many great ways that the Director Peter Evans was skillfully and clearly able to shape the dramatic tension and elements within the show. Evans was also able to add his personal touches into the show in order to make the experience unique to Bell Shakespeare themselves. The play is traditionally a serious play, although in manifestation the Bell Shakespeare production skillfully decided to add elements of humor throughout the duration of the play. This meant that it broke the audience from deep thoughts to a light focus. Humor is one of the elements that the general audience would never expect from a show like Othello and would be exceptionally hard to pull off for the director, without stripping away all focus and tension. One of the most impressive elements that Evans added was the use of green symbolism within the set of the play, the walls, table and even lighting was all green. Othello is a very complex play to comprehend and it is necessary for concentration in order to gain an understanding of what the green meant throughout the play although it became clear through directorial input after the commencement of the play. Flooding the set with the colour green was able to imply a greater meaning than the literal suggestion. The use of green was a tremendous directorial vision as it emphasized the importance of the theme of jealousy and utter deception during the play. The use of green also added towards the tension within the climax of the play.