Less is Moor

It’s intelligent, enjoyable, beautiful to look at and funny in unexpected places, yet Othello at the Globe didn’t quite meet my sky-high expectations. The star should be the Moor but André Holland, from Alabama, can’t rival the magnetism of Mark Rylance (Iago). Holland’s diction is a strain for British ears. We’re used to hearing consonants bashed out — rata-tat-tat — like a rifle range, but his looser southern accent made some of his lines indistinct. Stately Jessica Warbeck lacks Desdemona’s impulsive streak and she plays her as a mature and self-possessed recipient of several Businesswoman of the Year awards. It was strange to see this matriarchal figure meekly assenting to Othello’s announcement, in Act V, that he was about to strangle her on the basis of fake news. I wanted Desdemona to punch him. I expect Warbeck wanted to as well.

The director Claire van Kampen, wife of Mark Rylance, has explored all kinds of minor details and come up with new solutions. In the opening scene, it’s clear from Iago’s body language that he’s concealing himself from Brabantio. When Roderigo arrives in Cyprus, he emerges from a trunk that stinks after the long voyage. Iago’s costume is an enjoyable confection of hints and clues. The grenadier’s cap and the toothbrush moustache suggest ‘the Austrian corporal’. The trousers are cut too high at the waist and too short at the ankle — a nod to vaudeville, perhaps.

Physically, Rylance presents Iago as a hyperactive ringmaster, scampering around the stage, stooping like Groucho, fine-tuning his plan and keeping its tattered details in order. What the performance lacks is any sense of Iago’s inner life or psychology. He deploys none of the charm, merriment or cordiality that an actor can use to humanise Iago and to make his deceitfulness plausible.