Othello, The National (The Olivier)

Present: Nic, Helen, Kate

Date: July 3, 2013

Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear both shone in this production.  

Rory Kinnear's body language as conniving Iago was brilliant even if he was sometimes a little hard to understand.

There was nothing of Mickey Bricks to see here except his ability to wear anything and make it look good.  Adrian Lester's Othello was handsome, sexy, good but frightening, strong but flawed: one who indeed loved not wisely but too well.  

The updated environs - East London (?) and a military barracks in Cyprus - worked well and the staging was as clever as we've come to expect at The Olivier - the malfunction in the early minutes of Act one being the first we'd experienced and the re-starting of the play after a short hiatus met with British good will and cheers.  

The ending was violent.  The naivete of Iago's wife, as always, is a bit of a stumbling block but then, language, not plotting was always Shakespeare's strength!