Shakespeare’s Othello at ICCS |12 August 2016
Dazzling act by Independent School’s drama students
To commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death this year (by the way his exact birthdate was unknown), the Independent School’s A-Level drama club took on the challenging Shakespeare drama Othello (The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice) and brought it to life in a nearly full ICCS on Tuesday this week.
Many fellow students, peers from the Independent School, students from other schools, parents, many British descendants and a lot of culturally interested people came to see what kind of drama the A-Level actors could put on stage.
A complex task, when thinking of traditional Shakespeare school plays. Romeo and Juliette, Hamlet or Macbeth would have been more obvious choices, but according to A-Level English and Drama teacher Kim Balette, who directed the play, Othello was the drama that her students really wanted to play.
The play was staged in modern English, I mean really modern, no beating around the bush, straight forward, the names were called. The main actors wore masks just as they would have 400 years ago, and the masks came from Venice, which were picked up during their A-Level study tour earlier this year. The stage was fantastically decorated by the school’s art club with pillars reminiscent of the neo-classic era of a late renaissance (Venice has some of the finest buildings of that time) and superbly lit by stage lights and two gigantic street lanterns.
The students are studying Othello as part of their course for A-Level English Literature and that’s where the idea came from that they would like to perform the play and started rehearsing.
The play revolves around Othello, the Moor of Venice, a General in the Venetian army, who marries the daughter of a Senator in secret; Iago, the villain who manipulates everyone around him to get revenge; Desdemona, the tragic wife of Othello; Cassio, Othello’s Lieutenant, and Emilia, Iago’s wife. All become twisted into Iago’s web of lies and deceit.
Excited to visit an evening with an international flair of culture, the guests were not too sure what to expect. Some of the adults were simply attending as they loved drama during their school years and have maybe acted in one or two plays themselves, others who have never seen a Shakespeare drama live came for the new experience. Whatever the reason, the most fascinating part is that there was never a moment of dullness, all actors were captivating in their play, above all the villain Iago played by Adam Vel who starred with bravura. He carried the play! Contemporary light, easy to understand, he played tricky, jagged thinking, manipulated with ease throughout the play, using Othello’s different looks of heritage to his advantage and planted a poisonous seed that would grow out of hand.
Othello, the story
Let’s have here a little bit of background information about the play:
Othello (The tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice), the drama by William Shakespeare was written in 1603 and is based on the story ‘Un Capitano Moro’ (A Moorish Captain) that originated some 40 years earlier, written by an Italian called Cinthio who was inspired by an actual incident occurring in Venice around 1508. The story was verbally passed on to Shakespeare who visited Italy around 1600.
Previously in London, Shakespeare, so has been suggested, was intrigued by the exotic look of a new ambassador from an Arab King to the Queen (Elizabeth I) in 1600, who is said to have become the talk of London due to his exotic look with Arabic uniform, dagger and sword. The master of English drama melted the two together in ‘Othello, the Moor of Venice’; the tragedy about being different, prejudgment, manipulation, betrayal, malice, love and jealousy was born.
For the students’ play we had a blond short haired European looking girl, Brigitte Cave, playing Othello. She slipped well into the role of the loving husband to Desdemona and outlandish looking but noble and fair general to the Venetian army. After the move to Cyprus, where Othello is made governor of Cyprus, Desdemona, Othello’s wife played by Stephanie Ah-Cheen, who could not understand why her beloved husband changed, after being poisoned with lies and intrigues that Othello’s subordinate Iago dishes up. Iago himself contrives to get Lieutenant Cassio’s position, a loyal right hand to Othello (Cassio played by Fynn Balette). Furthermore Iago’s plan includes destroying Othello’s marriage with the help of the blindly in love Desdemona Rodrigo (played by Alissa Monty), a rich and dissolute gentleman from Venice.
The plot thickens as the green-eyed monster (jealousy) rears its ugly head and Othello’s blood runs with Iago’s poison. Emilia (Iago’s wife and servant to Desdemona, played by Vadrine Boullé) who desperately seeks Iago’s affection and Cassio unwittingly help Iago carry out his evil plans.
The ladies in the drama, Stephanie and Vadrine, were remarkable too, played their part with confidence and convincingly and kept the audience mesmerised.
The play also incorporated songs, with muses Shannon Surman and Nathanielle Soomery singing, and an intermission like in conventional theatre and opera houses.
During the break the audience could socialise and recap the play, have a glass of Venetian wine and snack on cheese (and juices for the students) organised by the Parent Teacher Association as a fundraiser and kindly entertained by ISPC.
However after Act Four, when a visit from Lodovico (played by Clara Sicobo), Brabantio's the senator’s kinsmen, arrived and all really went hopelessly bad for the honour of Othello and his love to Desdemona turned to revenge. All prickled by ‘Honest’ Iago’s manipulation he even resourced to plan the murders of Cassio and Desdemona, convinced of their adultery and betrayal. Too late Emila speaks up; Othello already murdered his wife and after hearing that he was all along led on by Iago, stabs him and turns the weapon to him.
Real drama with sword fight and murder at ICCS, with a convincing cast of Independent school’s A-Level Drama Club.
Bravo to Brigitte Cave, Adam Vel, Stephanie Ah-Cheen, Vadrine Boullé, Alissa Monty, Emy-Lee Lucas, Clara Sicobo, Fynn Balette, Michael Gedeon, Shawn Hoareau, Shannon Surman, Nathanielle Soomery and guitar player Joshua Samsoodine.
The extended applause by the audience, demanding the cast to return to the stage, showed everyone’s appreciation of this Shakespearean play and we hope it is not the last we will see there!
Reviewed by Irene du Preez