Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

A play within a play

Roysten Abel's prize-winning production plays with time and space on parallel tracks

MODERN INTERPRETATION From "Othello: A Play In Black and White"

First performed in 1604, the `Moor of Venice' has never been out of the stage. He has haunted the world in countless languages from Swedish to Swahili, in genres from Kathakali to Kabuki, in styles from the classic to the absurd.

"Othello: A Play in Black and White" is unique. There are spoofs of Hamlet and Macbeth, even of Romeo and Juliet. But rarely does anyone dare to parody "Othello." Unlike other villains, Iago is prompted by "motiveless malignity." Other tragic heroes evoke pity. But Othello's green-eyed monster strikes terror into the soul in a way that avarice, hubris or plain indecisiveness cannot do. People sob, sweat and swoon when Desdemona is murdered by a man deceived.

The theatre history of "Othello" has facts to defy even the Bard's phantasmagorical imagination. Edmund Kean collapsed on the stage while playing Othello. He died in the arms of Iago, played by his own son. Edwin Booth, famous for his depiction of both Othello and Iago, saw his alcoholic actor father playing Othello, being forcibly prevented from actually murdering his Desdemona. Booth knew more real life tragedy when his brother assassinated Abraham Lincoln.

Cult singer Paul Robeson's electrifying Moor broke taboos as the first black in an all-white Broadway cast.

India has seen innumerable Othellos. This Black and White version directed by Roysten Abel plays with time and space on parallel tracks. The play won the Scotsman Fringe First Award and has toured extensively around the world.

A modern Delhi-based theatre group rehearses the old tragedy where the central motifs of jealousy in love and prejudices provoked by cultural differences begin to mirror their own chasms. Are they doomed to make a mockery of the play? Is the spirit of the play manipulating them?

Scripted and shaped by the entire team, Can and Abel Theatre's "Othello" has been staged over 50 times in seven years, and in many countries, and acclaimed for its stark force. Along with Abel himself, the cast includes Adil Husain who plays a Kathakali trainer and Othello, and veteran Barry John as Iago.

GOWRI RAMNARAYAN

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail