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SF Views: The Epsiode Where We Drink
Skyler Cooper is one of the most beautiful women in the Bay Area. SFist has been vacillating between envy and infatuation since we saw her in the title role of Impact Theatre's (Full disclosure: A SFist staffer is deeply involved with Impact Theater) Othello. How can someone who looks that good be so talented? It's enough to incite us to go to the Castro Gold's Gym, (where she works as a personal trainer) and beg her to teach us to walk in her footsteps, until we remember that there's probably hard work involved, and we're just not into that.
If you've forgotten the basic plot of Othello, it's traditionally the story of a black military genius in a largely white army, who makes makes the dual "errors" of marrying a white woman and promoting one of his underlings over the other, causing jealousy and rage to spin out of control in his life and the lives of almost all he touches. As with all things Impact, their take on Othello is a fresh one, in which Othello is a dark-skinned black woman, and her nemesis, Iago (Casey Jackson -- more on him later) is a light skinned black man. By changing Othello's gender and orientation (for Desdemona remains a white woman), Impact creates even more complex tensions than Shakespeare's original work, as Iago's contempt for Othello encapsulates not only the racial but enters into the territory of homophobia and misogyny. By making this simple switch in the character of Othello, Director Melissa Hillman makes Othello imperatively contemporary.
Othello photo from Impact's site
We've studied Shakespeare with the best, and we know this play inside out. We have to admit that we worried about this play, having heard the phrase "action-film Shakespeare" bandied about in reference to this production, but we agreed with every cut and change, and feel that if this play is an action film, it's The Matrix -- it kept up an unrelenting intensity that had us on the edge of our seat.
The cast is the strongest we've seen of any Impact productions, with the women in the cast as the most obvious standouts. Skyler Cooper is a magnificent Othello, lovely Marissa Keltie is a Desdemona who is sweet without being cloying or stupid (quite a task, given what the Bard expects of her), Bernadette Quattrone's Emilia was loyalty and wisdom personified, and the ripe Brandy De Lara is Bianca. We applaud the Impact for taking this unexpected opportunity to show female beauty from so many different angles, from the rock-hard Othello, to the softly voluptuous Bianca.
The male cast is given far less to work with in terms of material, but all of them acquit themselves nicely. (We were especially happy to see Steven Epperson, our favorite f**ked-up a**hole, being less of one this time around in his role as Gratiano.)
our one issue with the production was the direction taken with Casey Jackson's Iago. We feel that it's important that Iago have a public and a private face, that his public face be that of the charming fun guy who everyone loves, and the private face a man destroyed by anger, bitterness, and envy. To us as an audience, that is what we find most compelling and fascinating, that this duality exists. However, we felt Jackson's Iago was inconsistent in this two-facedness -- there were moments in which his explication of his horrible plans to destroy the lives of almost everyone around him were marred by an almost Three Stooges type of broad comedic delivery. We struggled with this, because in other moments Jackson was spot-on and dark as hell. It was apparent to us that he has the chops to be a really brilliant and scary Iago, so we were disappointed to see him receiving laughs from the audience during moments we feel should have elicited shivers.
Technically, we were (as we always are) loving the sound design of the show. Impact's sound design is always marvelously appropriate for the works, and this production's design (by Jacob Coakley) was no exception. Our seats were fantastic, and all of the basement-related issues they've had in the past were resolved. It was a great night at the theater, and we recommend it to all of you, as well.
Othello
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Melissa Hillman
February 11–March 19, 2005
Thursdays-Saturdays 8pm
La Val's Subterranean, 1834 Euclid in Berkeley
All Thursday performances are pay-what-you-wish
510 464-4468 to make a reservation
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