Othello The Play

Festival will present "Othello" in 2012

After breaking its own attendance records with its 2011 production of "The Taming of the Shrew," Shakespeare Festival St. Louis has announced next year's production: "Othello."

Bruce Longworth, who directed the memorable Festival production of "Hamlet" in 2010, will return to direct "Othello." Head of the acting program at Webster University's Conservatory of Theatre Arts, Longworth will be the first director to return to direct a second festival production.

"Othello" will run May 23 to June 17, 2012 in Forest Park's Shakespeare Glen. The cast and design team will be announced later.

"Hamlet" - which won Kevin Kline awards for outstanding production of a play, outstanding actor in a play (to Jim Butz) and outstanding sound design (to  Ann Slayton and Robin Weatherall) - set an attendance record for the Festival, drawing about 56,000 theater-goers to the free, outdoor show.

But the comedy "Shrew," which Chicago director Sean Graney set in the suburbs in the 1950s, drew an even larger audience, about 63,000 theater-goers. It opened on May 25 and closed on Sunday

There was only one rain-out, at a preview, a definite plus for attendance. "The past two seasons have been an incredible run," said Festival artistic director Rick Dildine, who had Monday's best tweet of the day: "It's so nice not to have to worry about the weather any more!"

He can hand that off to Paul Blake, his counterpart at the Muny, which opened its season Monday night with a bright, youthful production of "Legally Blonde." If you need more "Shrew," check out the Muny next week, when it opens Cole Porter's dazzling take on the Shakespeare comedy, "Kiss Me, Kate.

Othello | Fully fringed

Is a cleverly directed production of one of Shakespeare’s richest stories, yet one also held back at times by poor acting.

The two leads’ lack of depth occasionally made the story feel more petty than tragic. Although Zach Raynor as Othello did gain some traction as his character descended into paranoid madness, he was often out of touch with the rest of the characters on stage. His use of the space was aggressive and engaging, if at times artificial.

Guy Buller in particular, playing Othello’s nemesis Iago, fell short. Stumbling with many of his lines, Buller never developed the diabolical presence that his nuanced character requires. Making Iago believable and exciting is crucial to ensure the play makes sense. Buller failed on both of these fronts: his strange indifference made several scenes ring hollow.

The supporting cast, however, was wonderful across the board. Nick Surges as Roderigo was particularly fun to watch, adding fantastic physical comedy and mannerisms to the part and lighting up the audience whenever he appeared. Katie Ryerson (Bianca) was just as good, scandalizing everything she touches and adding humour to Cassio’s death, petting him like a dog as he passes into the great abyss. And Grace Gordon as Desdemona was brilliantly evocative – her lovely singing scene with Anna Lindgren (Aemilia) had a kind of desperate sadness to it that would have made the Bard himself shed some tears.

The direction of the play was also clever and well-executed. The chorus was particularly effective, immersing the audience in the play’s tense atmosphere with trumpets and thunder. The 360-degree use of the ampitheatre space was right on, sweeping the audience up in the motion. Even when they weren’t in the scene, the actors were exposed to the audience’s gaze, and director Eleanor Crowder made the most of this format to create some great peripheral action. Also, hats off to Crowder for coming up with a valiant technical remedy for an in-show lighting issue during the show – one that required both the support of an elevated spotlight with a long stick and considerable patience.

Other than the one that Crowder was supporting, perhaps the show’s real “highlight” was the singing. Rachel Eugster worked with the text to develop a sequence of powerful songs that got across some of what the acting could not. While not perfect, Othello does feature great singing from the cast and a wonderful and mournful end to one of Shakespeare’s best tragedies.