Summary 
Strikingly realized tragic drama staged with black-box intimacy on a rotating crimson square with tall wooden walls of red looming beyond. This literally dark, lightning-paced drama focuses on a dashing young Iago and a worldly confident Othello.
Design
Directed by Chris Abraham. Designed by Julie Fox. Lighting design by Michael Walton. Compositions and sound design by Thomas Ryder Payne.
Cast
Graham Abbey (Iago), Shauna Black (Bianca), Keith Dinicol (Montano), Deborah Hay (Emilia), Brad Hodder (Cassio), Peter Hutt (Brabantio), Bethany Jillard (Desdemona), Dion Johnstone (Othello), Gareth Potter (Lodovico), Stephen Russell (Duke), Mike Shara (Roderigo), Brian Tree (Gratiano).
Analysis
Chris Abraham's daring production of Othello at the Stratford Festival is set upon a raked crimson turntable that dominates center stage. The stage spins to shift the downstage characters and set but also evokes a larger-than-reality sense of a watch face and the passing of time. Dark red walls line upstage, rising high above the turntable, the effect suitably shadowy and darkly forbidding, and Abraham uses the staging to dramatic effect. Roderigo and Iago arrive downstage 1.1 peering into the darkness from beneath fiery torches, the flicker casting shadows on the upstage walls. Othello also uses a torch to lighten his 1.2 arrival, an atmospheric rush from darkness into unsteady light, and in the most evocative image of the production, Othello kisses Desdemona at stage right, their shadows cast large on the wall behind them, but as Iago creeps closer, his shadow image pointedly obscures theirs. Further, the Duke's 1.3 chamber is lined with candelabra that contribute to the sense of fighting off looming darkness.
Abraham uses the turntable stage to quickly jump to subsequent scenes, like 2.3 when Cassio sags to his knees in shame: to the sound of a dog barking in the distance, Graham Abbey's reptilian Iago sits with hunch-shouldered commiseration upon a wine barrel, but even as they finish speaking - "honest Iago!" - the stage begins to spin and Othello and Desdemona passionately kiss on the platform, still at stage right. The scenic design lends considerably to the tragic mood: the scarlet-red walls upstage part slightly at 4.1; a fissure open on the outside world to reveal rolling fog, like during Othello's lurid - "false as hell!" - 4.2 condemnations; and by 4.3 night-time tree branches reflect silvery light as Desdemona begins to softly croon, "Willow." Finally, the shadows of Othello and Desdemona play against the stage walls as they argue, dancing back and forth so his shadow looms huge and monstrous over hers before he seizes her by the neck to begin strangling her.
Abbey's dashing Iago is the core of the drama, a handsome albeit sad-eyed young ensign orchestrating the demise of his fellow officers, wincing as if in pain - head back, eyes closed - when Roderigo discloses his name 1.1 to the curious Brabantio. He soliloquizes 2.1 in waning thunder sound effects and flashes of lightning at Cyprus as wicker baskets and trunks are carted and carried onstage. When he finishes, Roderigo pops from his hiding place - "the lusty Moor has leap'd into my seat!" - within a basket, and moments later, in 2.3, Abbey's Iago is clinking tankards and leading the soldiers in a merry old drinking song, although he is stung to brooding silence at Cassio's insistence that "the lieutenant's saved before the ensign." He slaps Abbey's Iago on the shoulder and tries to apologize, but Iago shrugs him away and points an accusing finger in his face. Abbey's superbly played Iago responds to other characters in striking ways, answering Emilia's 3.3 question with an ironic question of his own - "you have a thing for me?" - and seems on the edge of a manic-depressive disorder, kissing his wife gratefully and accepting the stolen handkerchief, then suddenly becoming serious as he studies it until he is yelling at her abusively. He responds to Othello's violence against him by kneeling down next to the General and softly pronouncing "I am your own forever," an odd allegiance combining traces of masochism and homosexuality. Abbey's Iago shoves Roderigo repeatedly 4.2, decrying his valor until Roderigo finally pushes back and draws his own knife: Iago's suddenly encouraged "you have mettle in thee" hearkens with a chill to Iago's stabbing of him just a few scenes later. He reveals more than a little frustrated anger, and perhaps more than a bit of the psychopath, when he attacks the crawling Roderigo, kinifing him repeatedly to graphic excess as Bianca rushes to Cassio's side.
Dion Johnstone plays a calm and confident Othello to counterpoint the seethingly energetic Iago, describing his romance with Desdemona 1.3 - the Duke: "I think this tale would win my daughter" - and being judged "far more fair than black." He watches with a commander's disdain as Cassio rages violently 2.2, then relieves the man of his sword - "never more be officer of mine" - but by 3.3 he is stammering and beside himself with shock and jealousy: "chaos is come again." Johnstone is convincing as he almost falls stage left, leaning a hand against a wall to support himself, then staggering - "false?" - to take Abbey's Iago by the face and shove his head to the ground, where the ensign must twist free and scooch backward to escape. During 4.1 Othello crouches offstage right and watches Desdemona suspiciously, then stands in a spotlight near Lodovico to slap Desdemona across the face. She turns away, crosses her arms, and sobs quietly. Finally, when Othello embraces and kisses her, he rolls his eyes and cries out at yet another mention of Cassio - "my mind misgives!" - and moments later he falls into epileptic seizure.
Abraham streamlines the supporting characterizations, minimizing all but Desdemona, Emilia, and Cassio to strengthen the focus of the narrative. The performances are strong, beginning with Bethany Jillard's ethereal and soft-spoken but still rich-in-spirit Desdemona. Wispy thin with fly-away light blonde hair, she demurs to Cassio's kneeling kiss of her hand 2.1 but delights in an embrace from Johnstone's Othello, and she seems terribly fragile singing her sad song 4.1, long white sheers crossing her bed like a protective cross and soaring to the fly. During 4.2, she kneels and fervently prays, head down and hands clasped together, upon the slowly spinning stage as it moves her ominously away from the audience. Emilia unties the sleeves of her gown 4.3, and Jillard's lovely Desdemona is vulnerable and sleeping on her bed 5.2 as it spins round again to downstage, candles lit on the stage's edge around her.
Brad Hodder's Cassio is also effectively portrayed, in a beard and curly hair, an apparently worldly Florentine who is revealed as quite naïve. He kisses Desdemona expansively 2.1, is lifted high in the air by his fellow soldiers 2.3, and he returns to the stage in a drunken roar, sidestepping the men trying to restrain him from Roderigo. He nearly strikes the fuming Othello with a wild swinging punch, and Desdemona literally sheds light on his shame when she arrives with her lantern. Iago preys upon Hodder's Cassio and his susceptibility to liquor as well as his passionate disregard for Bianca, whom he discusses in callous detail with Iago during 4.1 while the duped Othello seethes.
Deborah Hay's loyal Emilia is the other excellent characterization in Abraham's production, at Desdemona's side during the verbal abuse of 3.3 ("o curse of marriage") then knitting in a chair and observing 4.1: "why, is not this man jealous?" But the tragedy begins to spiral out of control quickly, Johnstone's Othello driving Desdemona to her knees 4.2 then seizing her by the neck and throwing her to the ground. He is brusque with her - 4.3: "get thee to bed" - before approaching her in their chamber 5.2 within the orange flicker of candle light. He kisses her sadly - "it is the cause" - and Jillard's Desdemona responds by moving her arms around his neck, but then he is strangling her and using a pillow to suffocate her when she still gasps a breath.
Abraham's lightning-paced drama unfolds the tragedy with inexorable speed. Hay's Emilia storms into the chamber, crying out as she pulls the long white curtains from their moorings. She ignores the subtle gestures from Abbey's Iago to remain silent, and he stabs her and attempts escape. When Othello realizes his wife's innocence and Iago's guilt, he cries out her name and embraces her, then injures Iago in the leg before standing to proclaim that he "loved not wisely, but too well" and stab himself with his dagger.