That comes as no surprise in âOthello,â sharply directed here by Nigel Shawn on a modern set with overly literal projections.
Though race canât help but be a theme in âOthello,â it is not the main one here; Iagoâs hatred, and Othelloâs susceptibility to it, seem to stem less from each manâs response to outsiderness than from their common fear of cuckoldry. (Iago imagines that Othello has slept with his wife, Emilia, here a soldier in Desdemonaâs retinue, not just her maid.) The women devise and
enact âscriptsâ of comeuppance for the men.
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By the time Emilia points out that the failings women regularly stand accused of are merely reflections of menâs worse ones â âThe ills we do, their ills instruct us soâ â itâs too late for Desdemona.
She has made her bed and will die in it. I left âOthelloâ thinking, oddly enough, about Vice President Mike Pence and other politicians who observe the âBilly Graham rule,â not allowing themselves, even at work, to be alone with women who arenât their wives.That idea came into relief, in both senses, in âLittle Shopâ and âPrivate Lives,â the sour NoÃŦl Coward comedy of divorce and infidelity. But it became most obvious when the tragedy of âOthelloâ flipped into the comedy of âMerry Wives.â
The absurd fear harbored by Mr. Ford that his wife is sleeping with Falstaff is matched only by Falstaffâs absurd fantasy that Mistress Ford and her bestie, Mistress Page, are gaga for him.
â There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning failure â
â There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning failure â
