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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, March 9, 2002

STAGE REVIEW
'Othello' adaption geared toward younger audiences

By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Theater Critic

Bulldog is Iago and Charles Timtim is Othello.

Brad Goda

'Othello'

Adapted by Y York

O'ahu: 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays through March 23; Tenney Theatre, St. Andrew's Cathedral; $10, $7.50, $5; 839-9885

Big Island: 7:30 p.m. March 15; Aloha Theatre, Kainaliu; $10, $7.50, $5; (808) 322-2323 and 6:30 p.m. March 17; Palace Theatre, Hilo: $10, $8: (808) 9197010

Not everyone will like Y York's version of Shakespeare's "Othello," written for the Honolulu Theatre for Youth. The real test will be whether it makes the classic more accessible to young audiences.

Written for ages 10 and up, the show runs a bit longer than an hour. After playing at high schools across the state for most of February, public performances begin tonight.

York's version pares it down to four characters and a disk jockey. A disk jockey? That's right. DJ JEDI, in dark glasses and camouflage, is prominently set up center stage, behind a bank of sound equipment, where he plays tapes and scratches LPs that accompany the action. His primary mission is to project an image of massive coolness.

There's a danger here that anyone in the audience older than 17 is likely to miss some of the nuances that would be abundantly clear to a high-schooler. What's interesting to an older crowd is comparing how the contemporary street images support the play's original intent.

Director Mark Lutwak responds to the York text with full-out rap and hip-hop staging. Chanted soliloquies punctuate selected Elizabethan lines and are delivered over a microphone. Casey Cameron's costumes are a colorful version of military surplus. That works for the men, but combat boots give Desdemona a biker-chick image that reduces the character's stature.

In whittling down the cast to only four actors, York's script throws focus sharply back to the dual problems that devil any production of the original script. What motivates Iago to such unremitting and conscienceless evil? And how does one keep Othello from looking like a jerk for falling for Iago's lies?

In this respect, Charles Kupahu Timtim fares well as Othello. He's dark and imposing in a long black overcoat and striking tattoos. But underneath his strict military control is a vulnerable kernel of doubt that he's deserving of love, or that he can allow himself to accept it. Iago's hints that Desdemona has been unfaithful directly hit that target.

Timtim etches the man's emotional disintegration with clear physical and vocal projection, underscored by dropping layers of costume until — in his undershirt — he writhes on the floor in an epileptic seizure.

HTY company actor Bulldog projects less clarity as Iago, which is probably the more difficult role. In this production he's a transparent liar, a disappointed suitor, and the source of laughter. All those elements are present in the Shakespeare script, but recombined in this production, they lack the cunning edge that also makes him grimly frightening.

Why does Iago do it? The character never explains.

Jonathan Clarke Sypert is likeable and genuinely naive as Cassio, and fills out more of the action in this version. But York's script eliminates the role of Emilia — Iago's wife and Desdemona's lady-in-waiting. By doing that, both Iago and Cassio become Desdemona's confidants, making it hard for Nara Springer to make the character much more than a confused young woman in military gear.

The style, the music and the rough physicality of the production should resonate with high school audiences. Their teachers would be wise to get an advance copy of the script to assure that important points don't get lost in translation.