Othello – Lyric Hammersmith

Frantic Assembly bring back their widely celebrated production of Othello adapted and directed by Scott Graham at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith. This modernised show follows Othello (Michael Akinsulire), the leader of a gang in a pub setting. They protect this area of land through violence shown in a series of movement pieces and dances. Desdemona (Chanel Waddock), daughter of gang member meets Othello in a montage hitting it off straight away, exuding with sexual connection and quite quickly becoming the metaphorical king and queen of the pack. In the background, Iago (Joe Layton) looks at this relationship as a threat and therefore creates his plan of revenge. The revenge? I’m not too sure- it could be the rumours that he has slept with his wife, Emilia (Kirsty Stuart) or simply just to overthrow him.

The story of Othello is widely known as it is one of Shakespeare’s greatest and recently also just had a run at National Theatre. The relevance of this piece is timeless as we must confront the society we are in today and think it is incredibly important to showcase however I think there was some faults in the mash up of modern ideas with classic texts. Firstly, I believe the concept was extremely strong and creates an interesting contrast to the classic characters- especially for the female roles. We see Desdemona just as kind and loving but with the fiery status behind her, the same goes for Emilia who creates a trusting maternal presence on stage but in the body of a young feisty woman. The confusion is created in how character’s must address each other, “madam”, “my lady” and “my lord” becomes extremely jarring when we are watching a gang talk about violence towards an opposing gang whilst holding baseball bats. I understand that the text can’t change but it put me in unease when Emilia and Desdemona seem to be best friends on equal status then suddenly Emilia says ‘my lady’ which completely changes their relationship. It was a hard thing to get over as it undoes the status and history of their character’s relationships and therefore the text doesn’t land. I couldn’t quite grasp Othello’s and Desdemona’s relationship with each other as the montage suggests they’re just newly sleeping together until she says ‘husband’ to which the ensemble share confused faces, as did I.

There were small moments like this that just undid a lot of what the concept has built, their history, relationships and war with the other gang became confused and cease to make sense which made me have to start again and try piece back together why these characters all wound up here together.

This effect went even further when it came to the murder. When Othello first hears Iago’s opinion of Desdemona it is laughable that Othello might strangle her to death. Once the seed has been planted and sprouted fully, we should be scared and panicked at Othello’s next move but as he enters the stage saying ‘how shall I murder’ the audience burst out laughing. This is passable as a one time thing however towards the end of the play as everyone is violently murdered, the laughing continues which is jarring as I’m sure the hopeful reaction would be horror at how it got here so quickly? I’m not opposed to laughing, but if we revisit the previous problem of the concept being faulted then the reason people are laughing is because Othello’s conclusions are completely ridiculous, to kill this girl he has been dating for a short period of time, to kill Cassio on such lack of evidence (which yes, this is the main point) but if you shorten this production to 2 hours and zoom through the built tension then there is no pay off and the audience is laughing because they don’t connect to the characters or the story. And that is a huge shame.

I believe the story and concept separate are fantastic but don’t quite compliment each other the way I wanted it to. Saying this, I do believe productions like this make Shakespeare incredibly accessible and interesting for modern audiences but as we move into 2023 is this more of a question of how relevant Shakespeare is becoming and perhaps is it time that we start moving forward with new writing rather than recreating Shakespeare just to pull in younger audiences?

The champion of this piece is the movement which we know and love Frantic Assembly for. This was fantastic and beautiful to watch- I just wanted more. Act 2 lacked the movement, and I really did miss it. The cast create stunning pictures and moments through their bodies, adding a powerful soundtrack and strobing lights these were the moments I took home with me. Laura Hopkins adding a collapsible wall symbolising the fall of Othello’s mental state apparently a new addition to the piece but other than this, it very much felt like similar to the original production back in 2015.

Overall, I left feeling slightly underwhelmed especially from such a high rated company as Frantic Assembly and if we are continuing with making Shakespeare relevant and accessible then there might need to be some sacrifices to classic text.

Playing until 11th February, https://lyric.co.uk/shows/othello/

Reviewer: Alice Rose

Reviewed: 24th January 2023

North West End UK Rating: ★★