‘Othello’, Collingwood College Woodplayers, Collingwood, 19 – 21 June 2009.

The amphitheatre at Collingwood College transforms what would otherwise merely be a turning circle into an ingenious outdoor space. On arrival, the audience – those that were prepared to risk the weather of a Durham summer afternoon – were seated on the tiered steps of the amphitheatre, some way away from colourful, graffiti splashed panels near the middle of the turning circle. These provided a rather meagre context for this staging of Othello, set in a modern police station – complete with truncheon wielding, uniformed staff. The decision to portray such a powerful tragedy in a police station was a bold move, and the directorial intention to highlight the themes of “jealousy and mistrust”, through the shorthand of this setting, was not conveyed as effectively as it could have been.

The appealing idea of the outdoor setting proved to be, however, a fundamental difficulty. The perils of outdoor theatre - the cool weather, the threat of rain and the wind, which continually tore apart the graffitied cloth on part of the panelling, and generated both background leaf-rustling and snatched away actors’ lines – were the main weaknesses in this otherwise promising production. Kayleigh Carr as Desdemona noticeably suffered from lines lost to the wind, as did Vincent McAviney as Cassio.

Robbie Cowlin as Iago outshone other capable members of the cast. One of his chief strengths was his spectacularly evil eyes. Iago never failed to keep roving eye contact with his latest target for coercion within the play and the audience members. His character was portrayed as deeply manipulative, persuasive; a true Machiavel who occasionally indulged in a wonderfully evil laugh.

Rodrigo, played by Chris Warr as stroppy and often squeaky, appeared suitably naive. Cowlin’s Iago’s exploitation of Rodrigo was emphasised by the latter’s petulance. In a play suffused with the heady power struggle of men, engaging in violent acts and political manoeuvring, this childish tone (with Rodrigo even emerging wrapped up in a duffel coat) juxtaposed neatly with the serious and dangerous game played out by Othello and Iago.

Andrew Kirby played a reticent, eventually very bitter Othello. Iago’s scheming destruction of Othello generates a chaotic, mad mess of jealousy, which is ultimately transferred from the remorseful Othello back to the guilty Iago. As the plot took its course and Othello’s suspicion grew, so Kirby’s striking tribal facial tattoo twitched with anger. Kirby and Carr’s comparative lack of physical interaction earlier in the play undermined the tenderness that could have been drawn out of the highly dramatic smothering scene in Act V. Carr’s Desdemona and McAviney’s Cassio’s interactions, on the other hand, were appropriately unreserved throughout and displayed a convincing naturalism in manner. The impact of the climactic smothering scene was diminished by Othello’s tentative kisses and Desdemona’s slow reactions.

The opening scenes of the play saw Chris Whitehead as Brabantio, dressed in pyjamas and dressing gown, delivering his lines from a window high above the amphitheatre. This ingenious use of the space available was unfortunately not matched throughout the rest of the performance. The expanse of the turning circle meant that actors frequently had to stride or run too far, or talk at an unnatural distance from one another. The clever pretence of a two-way mirror, however, allowed Othello to observe and comment on the revelations that were unfolding very successfully; although this effect was belied by the wind’s earlier damage to the heavily gaffer-taped cloth hanging over the cut-away ‘mirror’ panel.

The play suffered immensely due to the windy conditions in the amphitheatre, which hampered the performance in a number of ways. The set and use of space was at times inspired, but on the whole failed to fully take advantage of the potential of the outdoor setting. The Woodplayers’ performed a commendable and interesting police-station version of Shakespeare’s Othello – yet Cowlin’s evil Iago utterly stole the show.

Hannah Ryley