Othello

Last night morganmuffle, frayer  and I went to the last night of Othello, starring Lenny Henry at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

We started the evening with an excellent curry - which was supposed to be North African food, but a restaurant seems to have vanished/gone on holiday rather abruptly! With website still intact! Ah well. The curry was very good, and the company even better :)

Othello is not a play I have seen before, or studied, although I know the story, so I didn't have anything to compare this production to - but any subsequent production is going to have a lot to live up to! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Lenny Henry was a fantastic Othello, and he really put his all into the performance. Sadly Iago fluffed his lines in a couple of places - I appreciate he has more lines than Othello, but after a month of performances we felt he should have them down a bit better. I liked the costuming (sorta Edwardian - I loved Emilia's skirt and Desdemona's shoes) and the sparseness of the set - all your focus was on the acting. The production made full use of the slightly odd shape of the Playhouse stage, and the potential of the many entrances and exits - which made things quite lively.

Perhaps I need a theatre icon ....