Review: ‘Othello’ at Tavern showcases Bard’s best villain, heartbreaking tragedy

Othello, onstage at Shakespeare Tavern until November 29, remains a complex and compelling tragedy addressing issues of racism, marital infidelity, spousal abuse and manipulation. It has Shakespeare’s best villain and an outsider hero gone wrong.

Directed by O’Neil Delapenha, the play moves briskly, even with two intermissions, because Shakespeare’s script firmly places the audience in the point of view of the conniving character Iago, played by Kevin Roost. Iago is so emphatically the storyteller here that he even gives the stage greeting. We watch as he sets all the dominoes of a fiendish plot in motion and makes everyone else fall.

Iago admits that he feels betrayed and despises his commanding, Moorish, general Othello, played by Keithen Neville, who serves the Venetian republic in a war against the Turks. Though there are hints as to why Iago chooses such a path of destruction — including pure racial bias and being passed over for a military promotion in favor of his rival, Cassio (Adrian Beck) — what’s intriguing about the play is that Iago may just be a psychopath who thrives on chaos.

Othello, though, has been led to believe that Iago is honest to the core. His downfall comes about because he never is suspicious of a well-regarded man of reputation who serves him and seems to treat him well. And because Othello is confronted and doubted otherwise in the community because of his skin, sometimes even doubting whether he deserves the love he’s given, he is led astray by someone sinister.

Desdemona, played by Sarah Joyce Hack, is the pure-hearted daughter of a nobleman who falls in love and marries Othello at the outset of the play, which upsets her old suitor Roderigo (Trevor Poli) and her racist father Brabantio (Kirk S. Campbell). Only her servant and friend Emilia (Gabi King), Iago’s wife, seems to trust that the love is real and that her friend is fundamentally decent.

Meanwhile, Iago convinces Othello that his wife is untrue and that she and Cassio have cuckolded him.

What is done to Othello is vile. What Othello does in response is also vile but tragic.

The performances here are uniformly strong with the two central couples as standouts.

Neville projects Othello’s strength, initial decency and trusting nature from the outset. His monologues are proud and powerful, showcasing his prowess as a benevolent leader and his warmth and passion toward his wife. As that all sours, Neville makes the character bitter, mean and even scary toward his wife and friends. Those scenes are heartbreaking, largely because of how Hack portrays Desdemona, a constant lover who suddenly finds herself scorned and abused by someone without explanation. She’s bewildered. It is sadly relatable.

Roost, who is having quite a year after his remarkable turn in the Tavern’s earlier production of Emma, makes Iago an energetic, vicious bastard, switching gears constantly and bounding across the stage as he maneuvers all his evil plots. From the beginning, as Iago hides from view to protect his reputation while destroying others, Roost only shows the audience his character’s true feelings.

As Emilia, who emerges as the most heroic character in the play, King does terrific work, even in her sideways glances as she watches the situation devolve.

Beck’s Cassio is charming, and Poli is very funny as the easily duped Roderigo.

The production uses traditional stagecraft for moments of storm and turmoil, including lighting effects by Greg Hanthorn Jr. The fight choreography by Anthony J. Nash and intimacy choreography by Patty de la Garza also merit special praise.

Othello, for all its complexity, psychology and violence, is not an easy play to watch. But this production is very rich.

Where and When

Othello is at the Shakespeare Tavern through November 29. Tickets start around $30. 499 Peachtree St. NE.

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Benjamin Carr is an ArtsATL editor-at-large who has contributed to the publication since 2019 and is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Dramatists Guild, the Atlanta Press Club and the Horror Writers Association. His writing has been featured in podcasts for iHeartMedia, onstage as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and online in The Guardian. His debut novel, Impacted, was published by The Story Plant.