Aux Dog Theatre is back for round two in its 2011 season, tackling one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies, “Othello,” with the thunder and human horror it deserves.
For those who didn’t read “Hamlet” in school, the title character is a Moorish general in the service of the armies of Venice (making him an Arab or North African — and certainly an outsider). He is happily married and trusted by all, except for his right-hand man, Iago, who seeks to destroy Othello’s marriage, trust and mind.
Othello is the most “tragic” of Shakespeare’s tragedies. There are no illusions about the calamitous final outcome. The suspense and horror is a result of not “what” will happen, but how and when.
Peter Shea Kierst’s Iago is the towering center of the show. This is good news, since Iago, by far, has most of the lines.
It is when Iago is alone on stage addressing the audience that Kierst truly shines. Iago’s pace and person are finely crafted by Kierst, with the audience caught as any other character helplessly falling into tragedy.
To this end, Iago lies to the audience in these monologues about his motivations and reasons for hating Othello. The public image Iago constructs is the most caustic part of the relationship between Othello and Iago. He is called “Honest Iago” by other characters more times you can count. He is beloved and trusted by all.
Like the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” he’ll claim it’s because he was passed over for promotion, then change to how he suspects Othello slept with his wife, reinventing and removing the reasons behind the ultimate destruction of the lives he indirectly controls.
Often more than even Othello, his wife, Desdemona (played by Arlette Morgan), gains sympathy. Her suffering comes from a place of ignorance — just as it is said that the pain of an animal is worse than the pain of a human, she never understands the reason for her suffering or the cause of her tragedy.
Christy Lopez’s Emilia is the only one with the position or knowledge to understand Iago’s myriad machinations. She is the only character that Iago is openly cruel toward. The rest of the characters are treated with his glib, fictitious persona.
Lopez gives Emilia a painful, human vulnerability, which makes her undignified fate all the more heartbreaking.
One thing that is guaranteed to take you out of the moment and absorption of any play is poorly staged violence. Luckily, this is nowhere in sight.
Darryl DeLoach plays Othello with stellar stage presence and perfect violence. Every step and strike isn’t simply believable — it’s real.
Director Lori Stewart possesses a sharp and excellent eye for staging Shakespeare. Character movement and placement give depth and dimension to the Aux Dog set. The play is as visually pleasing as it is verbally.
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While the costumes are underwhelming, much is done with the minimal palette.
The high point of this effect was gray-clothed Iago centered at the grunt soldiers in black-— his sober, stoic hatred seething quietly and surrounded by his “mates’” boisterous drunken carousing.
Iago is the ultimate Shakespeare villain. His manipulations come from an understanding of emotion and the human condition. He plays on the people’s wants, the other characters always coming to him. He tells them what they want to hear only after he adjusted what it is they want. It’s hardly a wonder why good villains are so seductive to captive audiences.
Stewart and Aux Dog have assembled a crack cast and delivered a superb performance of one of Shakespeare’s more weighty creations.
With the recent success of their season opener, theatergoers and newcomers should be excited at the coming prospects from a relatively new voice in Albuquerque, making its own in a way that commands respect and attention.
