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Moor, please
The Guthrie Theater brings Othello to town
BY SALLY CRAGIN

Back in 2000, I was reviewing theater in St. Louis. It was a very sweet town, bursting with winning athletic teams. The performing arts, on the other hand, ranged from startling to stodgy. Alas, that season, stodgy was in the ascendant, so when Minneapolis’s famed Guthrie Theater sent in a spectacular touring production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (fairies flying in harness, brilliant acting, a preposterously apt Lake Wobegon version of "Pyramus and Thisby"), one’s cup of gratitude overflowed.

As part of the NEA’s Shakespeare in American Communities initiative, with the additional sponsorship of Target, RBC Dain Rauscher, and Bankfirst, the Guthrie comes to Boston starting Wednesday. Local audiences will get a chance to see for themselves just how this terrific regional theater does it when the troupe brings a Victorian-era-set production of Othello to the Cutler Majestic Theatre, with bells, whistles, and bustles in place. Guthrie artistic director Joe Dowling — a former head of Ireland’s Abbey Theatre who helmed A Touch of the Poet at the American Repertory Theatre in 1994 — promises a staging that’s true to the intense psychology of the tragedy about the doomed general, his faithful wife, and his manipulative subaltern.

"The wonderful thing about actors of Shakespeare nowadays is that they can focus on the shortcomings and failings of the characters," Dowling explains over the phone from Minneapolis. "We work on balance, making sure the verses are spoken properly first; then gradually you get to the mosaic of the character." The last time Dowling directed Othello was in Central Park, with Raul Julia and Christopher Walken. "With two stars and Central Park, it becomes a huge epic production," he says, adding that he’s eager to take another crack at the play. "With an ensemble cast, we can focus much more on the relationships."

Dowling’s Othello, Lester Purry, elaborates: "We sat with him, a vocal coach, and the dramaturg for two weeks before the rehearsals started and discussed the text, the meaning of the words, the characters and their motivation — why they were doing certain things and why they were reacting the way they were. That was eye-opening."

The Guthrie is just now resuming a national-touring program after being mostly off the road for almost 20 years. "We’re interested in doing much more than performing," says Beth Burns, the company’s director of education and community partnerships. "In Boston, we’ll be working with college students — workshops and symposiums with technical-theater students at Emerson, women in theater at Wellesley, and acting workshops at BU."

One of the more interesting projects the Guthrie has developed is a ‘Leadership Seminar,’ which it’ll be conducting at the workplace for sponsor RBC Dain Rauscher, an investment-banking firm. These workshops take the form of scene studies followed by discussions. Burns explains, "We introduce different leaders from Shakespeare’s works — Othello, Oberon, Lear, Hamlet — and then examine how the qualities of each of these leaders contribute to their success or downfall." So what about Othello? "He’s a man who’s extraordinarily successful within the military hierarchy. He’s been promoted despite the fact that he’s living in a racist society, because people recognize the quality of his leadership. But clearly he’s suffering from insecurity and is gullible and vulnerable to Iago’s lies and deceit." For Purry, playing the Moor has been like "riding a wave. It’s difficult to pace yourself. You can’t pull back from it."

Othello is presented by the Guthrie Theater at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont Street in the Theater District, April 7 through 10. Tickets are $15 to $55; call (800) 233-3123.


Issue Date: April 2 - 8, 2004
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