Othello

Penguin kindly offered me an advance copy of Tracy Chevalier's latest book, New Boy, recently which I am excited to read soon. You will be able to read my review of that in May, but, as New Boy is based on the plot of Othello, I thought I should revisit the original play first so I 'dusted off' my Audible download of the excellent Northern Broadsides production that starred Lenny Henry.

Having never actually seen, heard or read any other Othellos, I can't compare this audio version to any other production. However I can say that the play is gripping throughout and, other than the very first few lines where the dialogue speed seems inordinately fast, I was easily able to keep up with the action and to differentiate voices so I generally knew who was speaking (except when minor characters suddenly appear!) Lenny Henry is convincing as Othello and my favourite character has to be the villainous Iago. He is utterly self-serving and wonderfully two-faced! I didn't think the other characters had the depth of Iago or Othello, Desdemona seeming particularly flat to me, although I did appreciate Emilia's Elizabethan-style feminist outburst.

The storyline is moral lesson in not believing everything one is told, even if the news source has been reliable in the past - so Othello is relevant for 2017! Shakespeare illustrates the racism of the early 1600s and it is depressing to think that such attitudes still prevail four centuries later. While I could see how Othello was so easily led by Iago, on reflection I did find the ending stretched believability too far for my tastes. Overall I enjoyed the play though and would certainly listen to it again - or even go to see a live performance.