Othello review: Bitchin'!

So the evening's play, Othello, more than made up for the meh-ness of the matinee. My college friend Dan Donohue was playing Iago, one of Shakespeare's most villainous villains, and as always he was fabulous. In fact, with the exception of the guy playing Rodrigo, the cast was great across the board.

The staging was brilliant as well. The show is running on the Elizabethan Stage, which means the set is basically just a stage with balconies and a few entrances from the sides and through the audience. The entire set was painted in either black / dark earth tones or white, further enforcing the good/bad, black/white aspects of the play. the costumes were similarly stark and drab, with most of the military characters wearing varieties on black or brown leather and the women wearing either grey (Iago's wife) or white with brown (Desdemona). All of which made the blood in the final scene all the more striking.

I've seen Othello a few times, and this was definitely the best I've seen. And not, I don't think, just because I knew the bad guy and got to go have a drink with him after the show!