Billowing cigarette smoke, flowing alcohol and the tightly wound knot of the 1950s business world describes AU Rude Mechanicals’ production of “Othello,” which runs from Nov. 21-23 at the Kreeger auditorium.
Neil Deininger, a junior in the School of Communication and College of Arts and Sciences, delved deep into his first experience as a director of a full Rude Mechanicals production by calling upon cinematic visual tendencies to inform his adaptation.
“I think I’ve always really liked ‘Othello,’ at least compared to all the other Shakespearean tragedies, in that it’s very human, very real,” he said. “One of my major inspirations for setting it this way is the movie ‘Vertigo.’ There’s so many of those same ideas of obsession, passion and jealousy. And visually that comes across very well on stage.”
Shakespeare’s play follows Iago’s festering abhorrence of Othello, that eventually translates into a precarious plot to thwart the romance between he and Desdemona. Thus, tensions rise between the oblivious and easily-led Othello and Cassio, over Desdemona as Iago creates subterfuge to coolly invoke a boiling anger within Othello.
As one of Shakespeare’s most enduring and dynamic characters, the plotting Iago creates a more humanistic artifice so that the audience can express sympathy with him, Deininger said.
“He’s a great character because you get just enough motivation for a lot of different things, Othello slept with his wife a little bit, some people read that he’s in love with Othello, or that he’s racist,” Deininger said. “So there are all those things that you can play with, but none of them are definitive enough that there’s a right way to do it. While some people look at Iago as this person of great evil, I actually think he’s a very sort of human, pitiable character.”
Deininger said he found the play malleable to create multiple perspectives on the three men and their women in Rude Mechanicals’ version of “Othello.”
“I’m doing this very much as a play about these three men: Othello, Iago and Cassio, who have all these similar issues with the women in their lives,” he said. “They have these ideas that they can control them, do certain things and are expecting a certain lifestyle out of them. I think that’s ultimately when the tragedy comes.”
“Othello” runs through Nov. 21-23 at Kreeger Auditorium at 8:30 p.m.. Tickets are $7 at the door or through Eventbrite.
