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Othello's tragedy masterfully restaged at Wayside Theatre; Shakespeare's classic tale is still hautingly relevant
by Joe Farruggia
Nearly 400 years after his death in 1616, William Shakespeare is still as well-known as he was when he lived. Scholars differ on the quality of his work - at its worst it pandered to the lowest forms of popular entertainment, saturated with lurid sex and violence.
But at its best, Shakespeare's prose and poetry blended well to produce tragedies whose themes explore both the brightest and darkest of human emotions - love and hate, trust and jealousy, guilt and anguish, despair and revenge.
"The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice," is particularly relevant in the post-9/11 world. Its hero is Othello the Moor (Elliot Dash), a black Muslim who has acquired wealth and position as a general in Venice and has wooed and married the duaghter of a prominent Venetian.
Its villain is Iago (Ray Ficca), who craftily convinces Othello of his undying, but secretly seethes with racism and jealousy in a story that leads to murder and suicide.
Although Othello is the "hero," the tragedy is really about Iago, one of the most complicated villains ever devised in literature. Iago constantly tries to justify his actions to the audience in periodic soliloquys that reveal the treacherous and amoral depths to which his mind has sunk, as he weaves Macchiavellian intrigues that lead to the destruction of everyone around him - the innocent Cassio (Larry Dahlke), Othello's once trusted lieutenant; Iago's own wife, Emilia (Thomasin Savaiano), whom he kills as she reveals his treachery to Othello); Desdemona (Ann Marie Siegwarth), Othello's faithful wife, whom the Moor strangles in a fit of jealousy broght on by Iago's false accusations of adultery; and Othello himself, who takes his own life when he realizes the tragedy of which he is the main victim.
At one time, when racial sensibilities forced white actors to perform Othello in blackface, Iago's part was considered such a choice role that the lead actor would play both roles in alternating performances.
In this production, Ray Ficca has the role all to himself, and he plays it to the hilt, with every mocking mannerism and sneer revealing the dark depths to which the human soul can reach when it has lost all sense of moral conscience.
"The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice" runs through Oct. 7 at Wayside Theatre. Call 869-1776 for reservations.
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