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MONMOUTH — Theater at Monmouth’s 2017 “Power, Passion, and Privilege” season continues with Shakespeare’s greatest domestic tragedy. “Othello” will run Thursday, July 20, through Saturday, Aug. 19.
From start to finish, “Othello” is packed with revenge, illusion, passion, mistrust, jealousy and murder.
If the malevolent Iago is Shakespeare’s most compelling villain, then in Othello and Desdemona, the Bard offers his most tragic and unforgettable lovers. Newly married and promoted, Othello finds himself the pawn in the manipulative games of his right-hand man, Iago. As his imagination is poisoned, Othello turns on his new bride Desdemona and loyal lieutenant Cassio, rapidly spiraling from hero to murderer in Shakespeare’s tale of jealousy, duplicity and destruction.
Harold Bloom, author of “The Invention of the Human,” begins his examination of this play with a series of questions. “Why do we go to see tragedies in general?” he wonders. “Why do we always read the accounts in newspapers of dreadful fires and shocking murders but for the same reason? Why do so many persons frequent executions and trials… but because there is a natural tendency in the mind to strong excitement, a desire to have its faculties roused and stimulated to the utmost?” This relentless tragedy speaks to our contemporary, split-second news cycle and the persistent stream of of horrifying images of atrocities across the globe.
“But what’s so thrilling — and so terrifying — is that everything that occurs is so irrevocably inevitable, not because of capricious gods or cruel coincidences. No, the cause — to use a word Othello memorably repeats — lies in the precisely-defined personalities of everyone who inhabits the play’s closed universe,” notes Ben Brantley of “The New York Times.”
Director Catherine Weidner believes “This is a story of assumptions, misread signals, reputation, honor and betrayal; a story of marriage, friendship and loyalty.” Weidner summates that, “Shakespeare’s story leaves us thinking hard about assimilation, status, gender and race in profound human ways. Like any good play, it doesn’t provide easy answers.”
“Othello”_ _features Ryan Vincent Anderson as Iago; Josh Carpenter as Roderigo; Mark S. Cartier as Brabantio; Kelsey Burke as Desdemona; Wardell Julius Clark as Othello; James Noel Hoban as Duke of Venice; Brad Wilson as Cassio; Travis Johnson as Lodovico; Maggie Thompson as Emilia; Lucy Lavely as Bianca; J.P. Guimont as Montano; Mackenzie Shaw as Ensemble; Emery Lawrence as Ensemble; Ben Shaw as Ensemble; CJ Stewart as Ensemble. Set design by Dan Bilodeau, costume design by Kathleen Payton Brown, lighting design by Matthew Adelson, sound design by Rew Tippin, and fight direction by Leighton Samuels.
Located at 796 Main St., Theater at Monmouth’s additional performance dates for “Othello” are July 22, August 2, 15 at 7:30 p.m; July 22, 30, Aug. 8, 9, 19 at 1 p.m; Aug. 6 at 7 p.m, followed by a post-show discussion. Opening nights are also “Educator Nights,” offering 20 percent off the single ticket price with a photo ID at the box office. For more information on tickets, calendars, reservations, subscriptions and ways to save, contact the TAM box office at 207-933-9999 or visit www.theateratmonmouth.org.
