A Moorish tragedy
The Bard’s tale of intrigue and jealousy takes centre stage with Shakespeare demystified’s latest offering.
THERE is no greater travesty than the manipulation of an honest man. It is harrowing to witness the seeds of doubt and jealousy taking root in his mind.
Fear follows him like a shadow. Suspicion and chronic vigilance become his companions. Suddenly, those he once trusted are now potential enemies. Even his own wife, the woman he loves and adores, is no longer the paragon of purity.
He unwittingly becomes the puppet of his manipulator, who is now his voice of reason, the sole person he now trusts. A tragic end is the undeniable eventuality.
This is the tragedy of Othello, written by William Shakespeare . The classic work’s themes of jealousy, betrayal, revenge, love and manipulation still rings true in these modern times. The KL Shakespeare Players (KLSP), under its Shakespeare Demystified (SD) arm, tackled this tragic tale about the Moor of Venice who kills his wife out of unfounded jealousy under the manipulation of Iago and is ready to ensnare Malaysian audiences with its multifaceted themes.
“In Othello, the issue of ‘the Other’, among others, stands out. The play points out how unspoken prejudices in the hands of the unconscionable, through insidious means, can precipitate undesirable outcomes,” says Othello’s co-director Lim Kien Lee in a recent email interview from Penang.
Kien Lee, also the founder of KLSP, plays the titular role.
Othello opens tomorrow at Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre’s Pentas 2 and will run until April 26. The troupe ended its four-day run at the Penang Performing Arts Centre last Sunday.
Directed by Kien Lee and Qahar Aqilah, the six-member ensemble includes Grace Ng, Lim Soon Heng, Sandee Chew, David Lim, Arief Hamizan and Kien Lee himself.
The 1995 movie adaptation saw Laurence Fishburne as the Moor and Kenneth Branagh as the manipulative Iago, who essentially is the puppet master of the entire tragedy.
Disconsolate over Othello’s appointment of Michael Cassio and not him, to a higher position in the Venetian army, Iago plays the double-headed snake, acting as a concerned friend but subtly putting into motion his unscrupulous plans to rid Cassio and ultimately undo Othello.
He makes Othello believe that his wife Desdemona is in fact having an affair with Cassio, planting her handkerchief at Cassio’s home to corroborate his claims.
Speaking about the truth and motivations of his character Iago, radio host Soon Heng says: “to be human is to be open to all human emotions and capabilities. We manipulate to get what we want. And I have done that, as have 99.9 per cent of people. But that’s not saying that I’ll do what Iago does, causing such catastrophe in the wake.”
For Grace Ng, who plays Desdemona, her relationship with her character is one of love and hate.
“On one hand, she is beautiful, kind, generous and intelligent. Everything that men desire and women admire. But we all have our shadow sides. And the dangerous thing with Desdemona is that her shadow side is destructive to herself,” the 29-year-old reckons.
As for Sandee Chew, who plays Emilia, Iago’s unassuming wife, some presumptions had to be confronted and overcome.
“I had to do a lot of research and on-the-floor exploration of different aspects relating to Emilia’s circumstances and relationships, to understand for myself what they mean to me as Emilia, not just intellectually but emotionally and physically,” the actress points out.
What makes SD’s staging of the Bard’s work different is that the play is performed in its original text, punctuated with narration in contemporary English.
Kien Lee explains that the threeto-four hour play is truncated into 100 minutes, “focusing on the canonical scenes – the juicy bits” and the narration provides “the context, some character analyses and clarification of unfamiliar ‘Shakespearean expressions’.”
“The theatregoer who has never read or even heard of Shakespeare will, by the end of the performance, know the main plot, major themes and relevant social issues,” adds the 40-year-old actor-director.
Some of the plays tackled by SD are Julius Caesar (2011), The Merchant Of Venice (2012), The Merry Wives of Windsor (2013) and Hamlet (2014).
In the end, Othello is a tale about the green-eyed monster and the disastrous effects that unfolds once we allow it to control us. Ironically, as Iago himself said, beware of jealousy for it is “the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on”.
Othello is on at Pentas 2, KLPac, Sentul Park, Jalan Stratchan, off Jalan Ipoh. April 22-25 (8.30pm) and April 25-26 (3pm). Tickets are priced at RM40 and RM30 (students). Call 03-4047 9000 or visitwww.klpac. org and www.facebook.com/shake spearedemystified for details.