The National Theatre's production was set in a modern day army camp and starred Adrian Lester as the troubled moor and the darling Rory Kinnear as The badass Iago.........
The acting by the leads was at times electric, but I must admit the whole thing was just a tad too long for me.........
When Othello finally totally flips and corners Desdemona on her Ikea bed.....I found myself thinking
" Come on!!!!!!!! come on!!!! get on with it............smother the bitch"
Message to self
Stick to zombies
Stick to Zombies?
ReplyDeleteThe walking dead.......it's only an hour a episode
ReplyDeleteI watched the modern movie adaptation of it (The movie 'O') and it was really good. I have never seen the play.
ReplyDeleteI passed an A/L English Lit with an essay on the tragedy of Iago...long before the NT got hold of the idea...
ReplyDeleteI read Othello in college. It's not a favorite of mine. I've never seen it on stage or done as a movie. I would rather see King Lear, which I loved reading.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
I could imagine better Iagos.
ReplyDeleteJane x
okay okay; i gotta admit - i lost it at Ikea bed... LOL
ReplyDeleteokay okay; i gotta admit - i lost it at Ikea bed... LOL
ReplyDeleteJohn, have you seen Breaking Bad yet? Best tv show in ages, in my opinion! And it's done by AMC too.
ReplyDeleteWe love that show. A real must see!
DeleteI was listening to Rory Kinnear in a radio play last night; he really is very good.
ReplyDeleteZombies instead of Shakespeare? Wash your mouth out with soap man. In my mind, although the movie was good, the stage version done in original Shakespeare is much better. Glad you are holding on to Winifred by the way.
ReplyDeleteI find this the most painful of ALL the Bard's works to read or experience - and when it comes up in my monthly reading of the plays, as it does tri-annually, I sigh an inward groan. Not that it's bad, it certainly is NOT that, but O's gullibility and rock-steady faith in Iago in the face of the latter's villainy affects me so deeply, close to the bone, that I find it almost unbearable. It used to be my favourite of his plays. Now it's one of them which I make most effort to avoid. (I won't mention the the absurdity of Desdemona's delayed demise after being smothered - one has to try one's best to gloss over that!)
ReplyDeleteI was considering seeing this production in a live relay to a number of cinemas nationwide. Both principal actors seem, on paper, to be perfect for their parts, and reviews appear to confirm it. (I'm assuming that you saw it 'in the flesh' so to speak.)
I've got the video of Adrian Lester playing Bobby in 'Company'. He's always been a darn fine actor with a wide range - and Rory Kinnear is managing with honours to avoid the type-casting to which his dad sadly became subject. A most impressive double-casting.
2nd/3rd line - 'tri-annually' should, of course, have read 'tri-ennially'.
DeleteI read a very abridged version of Othello as a kid, and was not able comprehend much of it. Feels good to be reminded of it.
ReplyDeleteNo, not seen or read it. Macbeth for me every time.
ReplyDeleteAdrian Lester narrated the Chris Ryan audio books Joe used to listen too. Imagine my surprise when I phoned the National Theater to book tickets for a play to hear Adrian's smooth voice asking me to donate 5% of the cost of the tickets to the theater trust !
There is a talk at Havant literary festival by Mark Long about surviving a Zombie attack on Saturday ! I can't go !
The moral of the story? Don't watch Othello while attending WeightWatchers. You'd have found it less onerous with a big bag of Revels....
ReplyDeleteI did study it. The only version I like is the Orson Welles film. 90 minutes and you're on your way. Perfect timing!
ReplyDeleteAn Ikea bed and man on woman violence? Adrian has come a long way since Hustle.
ReplyDeleteKind of like my feeling about the movie "Titanic." At one point I turned to my nail-biting, teary eyed companion and said, "The ship DOES sink!"
ReplyDeleteI loved seeing this at the National...but I know what you mean about it going on a bit...we were rooting for an American happy ending, but that would have had Shakespeare turning in his grave!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this John. I have been effectively confined to quarters since my enforced early return from Ireland last Satuday* and was thinking I might drag my aching carcass in to Neath to see this at the resurrected Gwyn Hall Arts Centre but you have reminded me of how frustrated I got watching the last film version I saw of it so have saved me the trouble x *Probable cracked rib NB This month's handy hint - never break into and excited jog whilst wearing binoculars!
ReplyDeleteI liked it. The one thing that bothered me was seeing Amelia breathing after she was dead. If i were in the theatre watching it, i most likely wouldn't have seen the movement, but with the camera angle, her breathing was all too obvious. They could have covered her with a sheet or something, and that would have hidden the heaving midsection from view.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a long time since i read the play--if i'm going to see one by the Country Bumpkin, i usually reread the play beforehand.
During the intermission (which wasn't done in Shakespeare's day) when they interviewed the man who leant army expertise, he reminded the viewers of the trust soldiers have for each other and how it was easy for Iago to abuse that trust and hoodwink such an upstanding leader as Othello.
Yes I was also put off my Amelia too xx
DeleteWe were planning on going to see that - but then I saw the ad for the re-run of Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller. So we're going to see that instead (I couldn't afford both)
ReplyDeleteI think I'm glad now.
Should we go and see it?
ReplyDeleteThe acting is well worth the effort.... But take a cushion for your arse x
DeleteAdrian Lester, aka Mickey. Nice.
ReplyDelete