Play Review : Othello - a play in black and white

Play : Othello- a play in black and white
Playwright : William Shakespeare
Troupe : Can and Abel Theatres, New Delhi.
Characters and Cast:
Othello - A moor in the service of the Venetian State. Moor also read as "outsider" : played by Adil.
Desdemona - Daughter of a Venetian Senator and Othello's lady love : played by Kristen
Brabantio - A Venetian senator and Desdemona's father : played by Nikhil
Roderigo - A wealthy Venetian gentleman lusting after Desdemona : also played by Nikhil
Iago - Othello's subordinate in the army. One of Shakespeare's most manipulative and evil characters : played by Barry.
Cassio - Othello's good friend and Lieutenant in his army : played by Dileep.

Summary :
Originally a play in 5 acts, it can be summarised most shortly as follows. Othello, a moor and Desdemona fall in love with each other and get married, inspite of her father's disapproval. Roderigo wants Desdemona and pays Iago to spy on them and somehow make this possible. Iago, though intially loyal to Othello, begins to hate him after he promotes Cassio and not him as lieutenant. He wants to get Cassio killed too so that he can replace him. Deciding to kill 2 birds with one stone, he tells Othello that Cassio is having an affair with his wife and when asked for evidence, shows that Cassio has Desdemona's handkerchief, a present given by Othello, which in fact, Iago had planted on Cassio. Enraged, Othello resolves to kill Desdemona and Iago convinces him that Cassio needs to be killed too. He and Roderigo ambush Cassio with Iago remaining unseen so that Cassio can't identify him in case he survives. Finally, on being discovered, Iago claims innocence to Cassio's injuries and kills Roderigo instead, something he feels necessary because Roderigo is becoming increasingly suspicious of Iago's greed and final motives. Othello then kills Desdemona, her pleas of innocence falling on deaf ears. Finally Iago's game is discovered and Othello upon learning his folly is so overcome by guilt that he kills himself and lays on top of his wife's body. Cassio is then placed in charge of Iago. The play ends there, it is assumed that Iago is taken away to be tortured or killed.

Story of the play :
It wasn't the complete 5 act play, but was shortened to about 90 minutes while retaining the key scenes and the essence of the original. It utilised the concept of "a play within a play". A troupe begins rehearsing for Othello and decides to do it with a Kathakali base, the director( Royston Abel who plays himself in the play and who is Mallu, surprise surprise !!) remaining adamant about it, his cast's apprehensions notwithstanding. To help them train, they sign on a Kathakali teacher, Adil, who is Assamese and who can barely speak English. When it's time to assign the cast, Royston decides to give Othello's part to Adil and Iago's part to Barry, the oldest member of the troupe. His cast is furious because not only did they take it for granted as to who would be assigned what part, but also because Adil can barely speak English and would need extensive coaching to be able to even speak a few sentences together. Nikhil, who has a super-inflated ego is the most furious of the lot as he assumed he would play Othello. Dileep and Kristen, who are in a relationship, seem ok with the idea. The irony here is that Cassio and Desdemona, who are accused of having an affair, are already having one. Into their lives comes Adil, who ends up seducing Kristen during one of their after-rehearsal English coaching sessions. Adil, who is initially the quietest and most committed of the lot soon begins to throw a lot of tantrums and demands that Kristen break up with Dileep. This goes on for sometime, with Adil getting more and more into his role. As the jealous and suspicious Othello, he shows flashes of brilliance but they are cleanly overshadowed by his obsession with Kristen and desire for her. It reaches its crescendo when during a rehearsal, he actually almost strangles Kristen out of anger. This leads to a lot of ill-feeling and resentment towards Adil. The troupe is convinced that the play cannot go on the floor but ultimately they manage to pull it off with only one change. Adil is so much in love with Kristen that he cannot bring himself to kill her on the night of the play.
Review :
I thought the performance of the cast of "The Shadow Box" was brilliant. Well, these guys were simply MIND-BLOWING !! If i knew any better superlatives, I would have used them too. I felt the story was awesome, a modern day Othello that everyone could relate to that still retains The Bard's touch because of the "Othello being staged within Othello". The irony that Cassio and Desdemona, who are accused of having an affair, are already having one was delicious too. And as for the cast, Barry, Nikhil and Adil were beyond brilliant. The transformation of Adil from the quiet, simple and hardworking Kathakali teacher to the mistrustful, temperamental actor was especially noteworthy. Dileep was good too though he didn't have a very demanding role. I felt the main letdown of the play was Kristen. Pretty and curvaceous, she didn't do a very good job. There wasn't much voice modulation, her American drawl seemed totally out of place and she wasn't showing emotions like confusion, fear and despair properly, just to name a few. She seemed like one of those Hollywood "teen movie" actresses. Ok.. she wasn't that bad but the main point was that her co-actors were so good that the contrast was much too stark. From the acting and story point of view, I think this will remain the best play I've seen for quite some time to come but the script( the original lines that is) was a little too tedious and convoluted for my liking . And now matter what purists say, I think I'm speaking for the largest section of the audience present there who aren't exactly well versed in Shakespearean English.

Extras :
Avinash and Adi entered before me this time, and got us seats right at the back. I badly wanted to be up front to get a better look at Kristen but 'twas not to be. Nevertheless, I had a field day othewise.. :).