On the 30th of October, I went to the Leicester Curve Theatre to watch the adaption of Othello by the production Frantic Assembly-a physical theatre company. Othello was written by the playwright William Shakespeare in the Elizabethan period and would have been performed by his company the Kingsmen. Before watching Othello, I had some previous experience with the production company Frantic Assembly through their plays 'Pool, no water' and 'The Believers', I therefore knew there would be interesting choreographed movements using transportable yet minimalistic set. However when I walked into the auditorium I noticed that upon the proscenium arch stage there was large pieces of set making the performance space look small and cramped. This changed my expectations of the performance. Frantic Assembly's set was made to look like an old run down pub name 'The Cypress' in Yorkshire. This was to communicate the Director's influence and contextual background about the book 'Dark Heart, the shocking truth about hidden britain'. This is a book, by Nick Davies, which highlights the social tension of the UK's underbelly in hidden gang culture which was exposed at the time of the riots. This influenced Scott Graham and Steven Hogget to explore a modern interpretation of the social and racial tensions in Othello.
As previously mentioned, before the performance began, the acting space looked cramped due to set such as: the pool table, a cushioned curved bench and a slot machine-large items which appeared immovable. However as the play began loud modern music-which would have been stereotyped as 'chav'- began to play, the lights were a light natural yellow and the cast came in from the door allocated behind the cushioned bench. At first there was no choreographed movement, the cast moved around and interacted with one another without dialogue being spoken out to the audience to hear. However after Desdemona's father agreed to the courtship of herself and Othello, a new energy entered the atmosphere as choreographed movements which created visually stimulating emotions of happiness began, as the cast used gestus to show they were drunk (also assisted by the prop of beer bottles) the movements became faster as well as the music becoming louder and then suddenly the cast starting jumping on and off the set, moving with the set-as the audience discovered the set was on wheels and could be moved around- creating dynamic movements. A moment of the scene which was memorable was when Cassio, who had been promoted, was lifted up by the other cast. One hand was balanced on the pool table and the other was holding a pool cue (which symbolised a sword) which another cast member was holding. As he was held up by his legs the pool table moved clockwise. Furthermore, I thought while this was happening that I saw the walls move slightly. It wasn't until other scene which moved the walls that I realised I had in fact scene them shudder whilst the men did this lift. The set designer Laura Hopkins said that she intended the set to not only be used to create interesting moments that will add to the intense atmosphere but she wanted to reflect the emotional state of the characters.
Alternatively, in Original Performance Conditions (OPC), they dynamic use of set like in the Frantic performance would not have been available. Set in the Elizabethan Theatre was minimalistic and if there were any large pieces of set used-such as the love bed of Othello and Desdemona- this would have remained on stage for the entire performance. Instead of using set to reflect the setting, the Elizabethan audience depended on the dialect in performance. A common saying in that era was 'I am going to hear a play', this stresses the importance of clear vocal and specific delivery that would create an image in the audiences mind. Furthermore the actors did not perform choreographed movements like Frantic had, instead their source of entertainment originated from the dialogue of the actors. The dialogue was often filled with beautiful metaphors and similes, used repetitive soliloquies in a rhyming verse of an iambic pentameter rhythm. This would have been spoken by clear and strong voiced actors such as Richard Burbage, a famous actor who also performed roles such as Romeo, Hamlet, Macbeth etc. as if the audience were not pleased by the performance they would often throw things onstage such as vegtables.
The most dynamic, memorable and effective moment of the play for myself as an audience member was in the death scene of Desdemona- a famously hard scene to stage. I believe this was effective as it paralleled a previous scene of Desdemona and Othello's love scene after marriage on the pool table-which double as their bed. It was the juxtaposition between the two scenes which made the atmosphere, in my opinion, feel more heightened with anxiety. Othello placed Desdemona above himself, in the background there was loud heavy bassed music (oposite to their love scene which was soft lyrical music), the lighting had become intensly bright, while this was happening Othello (played by Jimmy Akingbola) strangled Desdemona (played by Claire-Louise Cordwell). After her death Desdemona layed still on the pool tabel whilst Othello backed away from her body and stumbled back into the wall which then proceded to move back with him. It was the proxcemic distance between the two characters which continued to lengthen which made the entire performance effective and memorable for me as it signified a strong emotion of regret and sadness which then pervaded the rest of the play. In contrast, I believ in OPC it would have been staged differently, I believe there may have been a bed, which would have stayed on stage for the entire performance, on which Othello, most likely played by Richard Burbage, would have 'stabed' a fellow male actor (as women did not perform as it was not seen proper) with a real dagger. In OPC the actors used real props such as real swords in the sword fighting scenes-this made scenes more exciting for the audience as there would have been a sense of danger, espically as the duel would have been improvised. The male actor who played Desdemona would have had fake blood, maybe guts which they would have bought from the butcher, and would have remained on the bed while the actor playing Othello would have peromed his directly adressed monologue out to the audience on the thrust stage.
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