Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Insurgo fills new space with unusual ‘Othello’

Othello at Insurgo

Courtesy

Insurgo Theater Movement’s artistic director John Beane will play Othello in the group’s latest production.

'Othello' presented by Insurgo Theater Movement

  • When: January 8 through January 30
  • Where: 900 E. Karen Ave., #D114 (Commercial Center)
  • Cost: $20
  • For more information: 369-3962

Taking a typically atypical approach to Shakespeare's Othello, Insurgo Theater Movement gives the tragedy a twist — an inversion of color-blind casting: Artistic director John Beane is playing the title role, ordinarily performed by a dark-skinned actor.

Other famous Othellos include Paul Robeson, James Earl Jones and, more recently, Chiwetel Ejiofor. But a white Othello is hardly unprecedented: Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles played the part onstage and screen in dark makeup; Patrick Stewart played the role in an otherwise all-black cast.

Insurgo's casting choice is not a black-and-white gimmick, says Beane, who is also directing (as did Olivier and Welles).

"Saying Othello is about race is like saying A Midsummer Night's Dream is about a flower," he says. "Race is a catalyst, one of several. But the play is the story of a villain, a beast — this mad jealousy. It is very nearly an infection — almost every character grapples with it in some way."

It's more important, Beane says, to understand that Othello is a warrior, and a man newly in love, on unfamiliar ground.

"There is an exotic quality to him. We are not specifying his race, but there is an otherness."

Othello — the first main-stage production in Insurgo's new Commercial Center space — is about courage and conviction, Beane says.

"Othello does not have half the proof of unrighteous behavior that Desdemona does, but she decides to believe in him — in them — she will not leave the love story. It is, as most great works are, a story about choices and our ability to craft reality in relation to our courage."

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