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| Sophia Marilyn Nelson and Robert Manning, Jr. as Desdemona and Ot'Teo. Photo by Maria Baranova. |
Plot and Background
Blessed Unrest Theatre Company, The Untitled Othello Project, and Sacred Heart University present Keith Hamilton Cobb's new prequel to Othello. Cobb, known for his 2019 play American Moor, which explored the complications of playing Othello but having to deal with having the character repeatedly explained to him by white directors. This marks a further exploration of the problem of Othello by visiting the characters prior to the tragedy set in motion by Iago's manipulations.What I Knew Beforehand
I really appreciated Cobb's earlier play, and was excited to see what he's got next.Thoughts:
Play: Once again, very striking work from Cobb: reading the script it is clear he has a very intentional sense of space and society. The play, beautiful and haunting, is both a love story and the opening threads of a Greek tragedy. Even as we see the slow and gentle courtship of Ot'Teo and Desdemona, we note every mention of Iago, Ot'Teo's seemingly honest friend who feeds him addicting pills and laughs at Ot'Teo's gullibility (and has most certainly stolen his diary). And when Desdemona unwraps her engagement gift from Ot'Teo and we see it is a stunning kerchief with strawberries on its design, we know too the fate of that kerchief and its owner. But perhaps, amidst the politics and war, amidst the too much drinking and the abusive father, amidst the grief for those loved ones lost and the fear of more to come, we can have this, in this moment. Here, if only here, in Nine Moons, we can have Desdemona and Ot'Teo, in love and happy and looking toward a bright and long future ahead of them. Ot'Teo knows how dark life can be--he tells of his difficulty in communicating his understanding of war to the pampered men of Verona: how "to explain child soldiers to men who have never missed a meal." But he also sees that perhaps, with Desdemona by his side, she who sees all of him and loves him for all his parts, perhaps he can find the light as well.
Cast: For all that the characters themselves are divided enough in their understandings of the world, the players are very much together in the same show together. Robert Manning, Jr. brings the battle-weary mien of a career soldier to his dealings with Brabantio, to whom he shows some deference while also not valuing his input, and a natural and presumed authority to his prospective aide-de-camp Michael Cassio. But then when he turns to Desdemona, when he sees her interest and her strength, he becomes gentle and kind, able to have physical contact when with others he is aloof. Sophia Marilyn Nelson's Desdemona, in her turn, is open and tender with Ot'Teo in a way she cannot be with Brabantio or Cassio, both of whom view her as an obtainable and ownable thing and therefore both of whom pose a physical and psychological danger to her. Perri Yaniv's Cassio and Aaron Michael Zook's Brabantio are more cypher sometimes, both of them playing games of politics and strategy, seeing both Desdemona and Ot'Teo as pieces in their game of chess to manipulate, rather than autonomous humans with their own agendas.
Design: It's surprising to realize this production has no credited scenic designer, given how striking its scenic design is: a canopy and space frame of sea-blue scrim, autumn velvet chairs, four large weather-beaten travel trunks, and a trickling tower fountain of gilt leaves overflowing onto each other. Baring being able to credit anyone else, I will pay compliment to Lead Carpenter Julia Little for so strikingly framing the performance space. Sera Bourgeau's costume design draws stark contrasts among the four players: while Michael Cassio wears the pristine and ironed uniform of an officer who stays in the tent, Ot'Teo's army fatigues and boots are the uniform of a man who has been in the thick of many battles, and is ready at any moment to physically defend his own life again. Desdemona and her father Brabantio, in contrast, favor more luxurious styles in keeping with the velvet chairs and carved wood table of their home: he in a burgundy velvet smoking jacket, she in soft fabrics, clean and fresh, as protected from the outside world as her father would have her be. It is striking then, that she alone changes wardrobe in the performance space, in full view of the audience. She alone strips to undergarments multiple times. She alone is the object to be traded among the men, until Ot'Teo sees her as a human with her own agency. Jay Ryan's lighting frames the space in haunting ways: the backlit space of the blue stairs with the fountain, Desdemona's garden--a safe space except when her father is there--, and then the warm lighting of her home, confined though it is by thin walls with no doors but slits to slip in and out. The narrow alleyways past these scrims are lit as well, letting us know that there is no place where anyone can truly hide from the public eye in this world. The sound design by Attilio Rigotti is striking: a mix of ambient sound like the trickling water of the fountain or Desdemona's nervous breath into the mic slightly off-time with the ticking clock, recorded sound like the knelling of a portentous bell or the pounding rain outside Brabantio's safely protected home, and the music of Frances Pollock with recorded singing by Tina P. Dinkins. Rigotti's design helps isolate the inner from the outer world, but sometimes the recorded voice, both speaking and singing, overpowers the performers onstage, rendering the text of both unintelligible.
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Running: Now playing at Theater for the New City (Blessed Unrest Theatre Company, in partnership with The Untitled Othello Project and with support from Sacred Heart University) - Opening: June 1, 2025. Closing: June 15, 2025.
Category: play
Length: 1 hour, 55 minutes, no intermission.
Creative Team
Playwright: Keith Hamilton Cobb, in collaboration with Jessica Burr and the devising ensemble
Director: Jessica Burr
Designers: Sera Bourgeau (Costume), Julia Little (Lead Carpenter), Attilio Rigotti (Sound), Jay Ryan (Lighting), Julia Mansur (Assistant Lighting), Frances Pollock (Composer), Tina P. Dinkins (Singer), Rebecca Whitney Klein (Stage Manager/Associate Producer), Jenn Allen (Business Manager/Associate Producer), Taylor "TV" Valentine (Training Director/Associate Producer), Paul Siebold, Off Off PR (Press Representative).
Cast: Robert Manning, Jr., Sophia Marilyn Nelson, Perri Yaniv, Aaron Michael Zook.
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| Perri Yaniv and Robert Manning, Jr. as Michael Cassio and Ot'Teo. Photo by Maria Baranova. |
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