Lorna Irvine reviews the Bard in the Botanics 'fine and lusty rendering' of the classic.
For over a decade now, Gordon Barr, the Artistic Director of Bard in the Botanics, has been battling his own drama in the shape of our characteristically erratic Scottish summer weather. Thankfully, despite some ominous-looking grey clouds overhead, the rain held off long enough for a fine and lusty rendering of Shakespeare's revenge play, telling the savage tale of ''the green-eyed monster''.
For those new to Othello, it is the classic narrative: Iago, to all intents and purposes a nobleman, is twisted with jealousy when his much desired Desdemona marries the handsome, righteous soldier Othello (a sensuous, sinuous Matthew Wade) and so hatches a plan to revenge him by planting in Othello's mind seeds of doubt as regarding his beloved's virtue. A simple handkerchief, a token of his early courtship with Desdemona, falls into Iago's possession, and he implicates Othello's best friend and Lieutenant Cassio by planting it upon him, stating Desdemona has been seen with Cassio. Bitterness, insanity, drugs and murder ensue—and all because of mere insinuation.
The set-up is thus nicely staged- a playful tavern scene an early portent of Iago's manipulation of the wonderfully gauche Cassio (an impressively impish James Ronan). Kirk Bage as Iago is a leery enough villain, his gimlet eyes betraying his every hug, aside and handshake, but it is a slow-burning Nicole Cooper as Desdemona who truly captivates, a headstrong intelligence coming undone, truly vulnerable in the second half. Her beautiful plainsong is moving indeed, knowing she must await her terrible fate.
The clouds and slight chill in the air are quite appropriate.
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