This year was Othello, a play I’ve always personally disliked, but I enjoyed this production. I especially liked their low-key Iago–he wasn’t played as a grand villain (though he did have a good villain’s laugh) so much as that sneaky guy in the office cubicle next to you, the one who seems a basically good guy and who you don’t really give much thought to. One got the feeling that one surely knew this guy in one’s day to day life, and maybe ought to start watching out for him a little more carefully. I liked that.
They also played Desdemona with more dignity than I was used to. She wasn’t a silly child; she was an adult leaving her father’s house for good reason, and who ultimately finds herself in an inexplicably and abruptly abusive relationship. The moment when she sends her attendant away, because Othello demanded it and because, as she tells the woman (paraphrased), “We musn’t do anything to anger him right now,” rang especially true in this regard.