A glance at the list of characters in any printed version of Shakespeare’s “Othello” lists 13 speaking parts along with the unnumbered, and generally silent, “senators, sailors, heralds and attendants” that usually fill out the stage.
Playhouse Tulsa’s version of this play takes a more austere approach to casting, reducing the number of characters to 11 and having them performed by six actors, three of whom portray a single character.
That idea of concentrating one’s resources runs throughout this show. While relatively little of the text of Shakespeare’s play has been trimmed, this production, which opened Wednesday at the Tulsa PAC, moves at such a clip and with such intensity that it’s a bit surprising to notice at the end of the evening nearly three hours have gone by.
Playhouse is giving only two public performances of its “Othello,” with the bulk of the shows reserved for student matinees. It might be that director Chris Crawford’s staging was designed to capture and hold younger attention spans, as the scenes move with the same kind of percussively forward momentum as the electronic music played during the scene breaks.
The directness of everything might rankle those who like their Shakespeare a little more subtle, and there were scenes and speeches – particularly in the early acts – that might have benefited from a less fevered pace, by having a little more time and room to breathe.
Otherwise, this “Othello” grabs one’s attention at the start and doesn’t relax that grip until the final blackout.
The cast is top-notch. Carl Collins in the title role gives the sense of a great deal of energy barely contained behind a thin veneer of good humor – only in his early interactions with Samantha Garcia as Desdemona does his Othello seem completely at ease. And when the violence within this character erupts, it is startlingly effective.
Crawford brings a swagger to his portrayal of Iago, that of a man confident he is the smartest one in the room, in complete command of every person and every action. Garcia’s Desdemona is a true innocent, unable to comprehend the change in the man she loves.
Tyler Humphries does a superb job of delineating his three characters: the callow Roderigo, the honorable Cassio, the stately Lodovico. Physically, it’s a matter of Humphries wearing different hats, but the characters are so well defined one has to remind oneself that it’s all the same actor.
And the scene in which Roderigo ambushes Cassio is most effectively staged in a blackout, with characters holding flashlights to illuminate portions of the scene, and allowing Humphries to be in two places at once.
Courtneay Sanders might not be quite effective as the elderly gent Brabantio, but she is excellent as Iago’s wife Emilia.
Kara Staiger took over the roles of the Duke, Bianca and Montano two days before the show opened, and assayed the task so effectively that no one at Wednesday’s performance would have guessed she was a last-minute addition to the cast.
“Othello” will have one more performance, 2 p.m. Saturday at the Tulsa PAC, 110 E. Second St. This performance will be interpreted for the hearing impaired. For tickets: 918-596-7111,
tulsaworld.com/mytix.
