Othello’s modern adaptation depicts malevolence and racism
CONFLICT IN PLAY MIRRORS INDIAN SOCIETY WHERE INTERCASTE MARRIAGES ARE FROWNED UPON
THE plot of Shakespeare’s play Othello, now playing at the National Theatre, is pretty straightforward.
Brabantio, a Venetian senator, is outraged when he learns that his “fair” and beautiful daughter, Desdemona, has secretly married Othello, a “lascivious Moor” who is a black African with “thick lips”. But Brabantio can do very little when Desdemona declares that she has chosen the Moor of her own free will. But Othello’s lieutenant, Iago, drips poison into his master’s ears, convincing him his wife is having an affair with another man, Cassio. Iago is seething with resentment because Othello has promoted Cassio over his head. In a jealous rage, Othello strangles Desdemona before he discovers he has been tricked by Iago. He has a go at trying to kill the treacherous Iago before committing suicide.
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, one of Shakespeare’s best known tragedies, was written in 1603-1604.
Eastern Eye readers who have seen Omkara, Vishal Bharadwaj’s 2006 adaptation of the play, will be familiar with Othello. The film had quite a star cast. Bharadwaj, who wrote the script, cast Ajay Devgn as Omkara “Omi” Shukla (Othello), while Kareena Kapoor was Dolly Mishra (Desdemona). The role of the malevolent Iago, called Ishwar “Langda” Tyagi, went to Saif Ali Khan.
Vivek Oberoi was “Kesu Firangi” Upadhyay (Cassio).
Bipasha Basu did the regulation item number as Billo Chamanbahar (Biana, Cassio’s real lover), while Naseeruddin Shah was Tiwari Bhaisaab (Duke of Venice, the main man in the then most important city in Europe).
What I do remember was Devgn (then spelt Devgan) and Oberoi coming to Cannes in 2006 and giving a press conference on board a yacht. Some people joke that there is so much melodrama in Shakespeare plays that the Bard would have been a Bollywood scriptwriter had he been alive today. In fact, in response to something I asked, Devgn got a bit carried away and declared that “Vishal Bharadwaj’s script is so good that it is even better than the original”.
Far from turning in his grave, one can imagine the Bard smiling in amusement.
The production at the National has a black director, Clint Dyer. Othello is played brilliantly by Giles Terera, Desdemona by Rosy McEwen, her father Brabantio by Jay Simpson, Iago dripping in bile by Paul Hilton, and Cassio by Rory Fleck Byrne. The whole thing is gut wrenching at how human frailties can be manipulated.
Roderigo, who is rejected when he asks Brabantio for his daughter’s hand in marriage, is played by Jack Bardoe.
Emilia, who is Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s maidservant, is played by Tanya Franks. She is the one who picks up a handkerchief accidentally dropped by Desdemona and gives to Iago, who then plants it on Cassio and convinces Othello that his special gift to his wife had been passed on to her lover.
It is worth pointing out that “the first major screen production casting a black actor as Othello did not come until 1995, with Laurence Fishburne opposite Kenneth Branagh’s Iago. In the past, Othello would often have been portrayed by a white actor in dark makeup or in a black mask: more recent actors who chose to ‘black up’ include Ralph Richardson (1937); Orson Welles (1952); Sergei Bondarchuk (1955); John Gielgud (1961); Laurence Olivier (1964); and Anthony Hopkins (1981). Ground-breaking black American actor Paul Robeson played the role in three different productions between 1930 and 1959.”
Having a black actor cast as Othello reinforces the impression that the play is partly about racism.
Iago plays a double game from the
start, telling Othello he is his loyal follower while trying to arouse as much hostility as possible in Desdemona’s father.
Iago informs Brabantio, who is woken up in the middle of the night, that “your fair daughter” is being molested by a black man in crude terms: “Zounds, sir, you’re robbed; for shame, put on your gown; Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul.
“Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise, Awake the snorting citizens with the bell, Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you. Arise, I say!”
To Roderigo, who has been rejected by Desdemona, her father repeats his earlier dismissal of his suit: “In honest plainness thou hast heard me say, My daughter is not for thee.”
But Iago is intent on provoking Brabantio’s rage against Othello, telling him that “we come to do you service, and you think we are ruffians, you’ll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse; you’ll have your nephews neigh to you, you’ll have coursers for cousins, and jennets for germans.”
Urged to “satisfy yourself” as to the truth of Desdemona’s elopement with Othello, a meeting takes place before the Duke of Venice.
Brabantio accuses Othello of bewitching his daughter with evil magic: “O thou foul thief! Where hast thou stowed my daughter? Damned as thou art, thou hast enchanted her”.
He cannot believe someone like Desdemona would “Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom Of such a thing as thou…That thou hast practised on her with foul charms, Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals That weakens motion.”
‘You have lost half your soul’
It is the sort of conflict that takes place all the time in Indian society when couples fall in love out of caste and are often killed by their own kinfolk for transgressing “family values”. In that sense, Othello is a very Indian story.
Brabantio’s complaint to the duke is the father’s lament: “She is abused, stolen from me, and corrupted By spells and medicines…”
Desdemona is summoned and admits her conflict of loyalties: “My noble father, I do perceive here a divided duty: To you I am bound for life and education; My life and education both do learn me How to respect you. You are lord of all my duty, I am hitherto your daughter. But here’s my husband; And so much duty as my mother showed To you, preferring you before her father, So much I challenge, that I may profess Due to the Moor, my lord.”
Brabantio realises he cannot reverse the marriage, but he hints at the tragedy to come: “Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see. She has deceived her father, and may thee.” There is betrayal, but it’s the other way round. Desdemona simply couldn’t convince her husband she was innocent until it was too late.
■ Othello is at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre until January 21, in cinemas across the UK from February 23 and around the world on April 27 via NT Live.