Othello performed by the Royal National Theatre (review)

The 2013 National Theatre production of Othellofeatured a black actor in the title role without seeming to offer race as the reason for Othello’s spiral into murderous violence. Director Nicholas Hytner transferred the traditional signs of Othello’s alienation to other characters; moreover, naturalized violence within a recognizably modern military world took precedence over race as the tragedy’s enabling force. The filmic techniques of the NT Live recording enhanced the effect (suggested by a staging that alternated between claustrophobic shipping containers and the open space within the stage’s barricaded perimeter) of Othello’s characterization as an insider. The production also preserved Shakespeare’s language while projecting a twenty-first century hostility towards racism.

While productions often stage Othello’s otherness through contrasts in costume and characterization, this production emphasized his social integration. Lester’s Othello entered the stage’s open space in 1.2 framed in a long shot while adjusting his cuffs and donning his jacket, drawing attention to a well-tailored suit that was entirely in keeping with the dress of his surrounding attendants and, in the next scene, with that of the senators. Once in Cyprus, his desert combat dress was likewise consistent with that of his subordinate officers. Lester’s upper-class English accent further aligned him with the high-ranking officers and senators, and was in sharp contrast to the London accent adopted by Kinnear as Iago. This Othello belonged to the military and English social elite, his presence distinctly commanding in the wide shots that were prevalent in the first two scenes. Iago, by contrast, seemed most at ease in those scenes filmed in the containers, which on the cinema screen resembled a studio set, shot in a naturalistic style with interior mid shots. The choice to cast actors of South Asian or African descent in the roles of Second Soldier, Gentleman, and Montano minimized the play’s potential black-white binary, and forestalled a perception of Othello as being geographically or culturally unique.

The production’s contemporary setting and barricaded set design recontextualized the play’s racism, rendering it at times the sign of other characters’ marginalization, downplaying race and emphasizing differences in status. Roderigo hesitated and checked that he was alone with Iago before uttering the phrase “thick-lips” (1.1.66) in close-up, clearly aware of the remark’s vulgarity. Brabantio’s racial slurs in 1.3 were met with the senators’ overt disapprobation: he was relegated to the corner of the table, isolated and faced away from the discussion, while the Duke respectfully indicated for Othello to address Brabantio’s accusations. The Duke’s final comment that Brabantio’s son-in-law was “far more fair than black” (1.3.289), spoken in mid shot as the counsel departed and almost as a secret aside to Othello, suggested a shared understanding of its impropriety.

Performance often eroticizes Othello’s exoticism, defining him as other through an emphasis on racialized sexuality. Unusually, then, Lester’s body was never bared on screen, and the production instead shifted the emphasis to Desdemona as the sexualized other. Interpolated stage business at the end of the interval was shot wide at a high angle and featured Desdemona jumping into a scratch football match with the soldiers. The men dissipated after her goal, reinforcing the sense of an insular male community. This physically expressive Desdemona bounced on her toes, leant in doorways with one arm above her head, and lounged on Othello’s desk. Her overt sensuality...