Ten Thousand Things' gripping 'Othello'

Ten Thousand Things Theater Company is first out of the gate with this season's dueling Othellos. You need to break into jail or visit a day room somewhere to catch the production, or you can wait for the public shows, beginning Friday, the same day Park Square Theatre opens the play in St. Paul.

Directors Michelle Hensley and Sonja Parks have put together a gripping, muscular staging. Lean and transparent, the show takes its cue from Iago's blunt personality and relentless agenda of deception. Luverne Seifert's Iago swaggers with bluff confidence -- a vulgar and oily user full of vengeful menace.

As the Moor, Ansa Akyea imposes with his powerful physical carriage -- regal and noble -- and snappish emotions. We aren't quite convinced of devoted love when he and Tracey Maloney's Desdemona scamper through the production's opening moments, but Maloney's character deepens into a performance that holds not a drop of guile.

Shakespeare's clearest themes -- the corrosive power of jealousy, revenge and deception -- are easy to grasp in this staging. Iago's amorality extends to anyone who gets in the way of his quest to pull down Othello. When Rodrigo -- a dupe of Iago's -- becomes inconvenient, the evil one drops him like a bag of dirt. As focused as Seifert's Iago is, Akyea's Othello is expansive, distracted and a little gullible.

And therein lies fodder for discussion. The very thing that makes this staging so attractive -- its simplicity -- raises questions that always have nagged. Does Akyea's Othello have the psychological rigor and discipline that a warrior would need to rise to the rank of general? If so, why does he seem a pawn in Iago's scheme? For that matter, is Seifert's Iago a tad too puckish, too transparently a liar?

Certainly, Othello and Iago are confidants, but the general passed over Iago for promotion to lieutenant. What was it about Iago's character that figured in that decision, and why -- ironically -- does Othello trust the man so deeply now?

Ten Thousand Things' cast is solid top to bottom, and there are brilliant moments of stagecraft amid the brisk pace. Peter Hansen's Cassio is sympathetic and heroic. Kim Richardson, in two smaller roles that could be throwaways, shows terrific investment as the bitter Branbantio (Desdemona's mother) and the humiliated Bianca. Christiana Clark finds the dutiful qualities of Iago's wife, Emilia, and mixes in that late lush of truthfulness. As always, Peter Vitale's musical soundscape is a scenic and emotional underpinning.

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299