Othello (Shakespeare) Off-Broadway Reviews

If intensity is what you want, then Bedlam’s electrifying D.I.Y. “Othello” at the West End Theater will better fit your needs: Shakespeare’s thriller moves faster than a freight train with broken brakes; I spent so long on the edge of my seat...

If intensity is what you want, then Bedlam’s electrifying D.I.Y. “Othello” at the West End Theater will better fit your needs: Shakespeare’s thriller moves faster than a freight train with broken brakes; I spent so long on the edge of my seat, I actually wrecked my back.

Given the demands on the actors and their constantly meeting the challenges, the performances are exemplary. Perhaps the highest point of many high points is the scene during which Iago plays on Othello’s being persuaded of Desdemona’s infidelity...

Given the demands on the actors and their constantly meeting the challenges, the performances are exemplary. Perhaps the highest point of many high points is the scene during which Iago plays on Othello’s being persuaded of Desdemona’s infidelity. Though Othello insists he’s not “easily jealous,” Iago sees through the demur and only accelerates his cunning.

In the end, I wish Tucker had gone further to streamline the text and make it resonate more clearly to modern audiences, or to provide a consistent framework (like that Baldwin quote) that carried through the whole show. With so few actors playing so...

In the end, I wish Tucker had gone further to streamline the text and make it resonate more clearly to modern audiences, or to provide a consistent framework (like that Baldwin quote) that carried through the whole show. With so few actors playing so many roles, it’s harder to identify with any one of them for very long, to put ourselves in their shoes and imagine how we too might become that monster.

Staging a Shakespeare tragedy with just four actors sounds like a potentially comic stunt or an unfortunate advertisement of dire economic straits, in either case a radical diminishment of the play. But the Bedlam theater company’s choice to mount ...

Staging a Shakespeare tragedy with just four actors sounds like a potentially comic stunt or an unfortunate advertisement of dire economic straits, in either case a radical diminishment of the play. But the Bedlam theater company’s choice to mount a production of “Othello” using just a quartet of performers has a certain literary justification.