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Here are the pros and cons of my evening experience.
PROS
1. Location: The Shakespeare Theatre Company performs at Sidney Harman Hall, which is right off of the Gallery Place/Chinatown metro stop near the Verizon Center, so the venue was very easy to get to! So at least I didn't have to worry about getting lost and such.
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3. The cast: This was quite a star-studded cast! Faran Tahir, who played Othello, was in movies like Elysium, Star Trek, and Iron Man, and was also on TV shows such as Criminal Minds, Elementary, Supernatural, Lost, and Grey's Anatomy. And Jonno Roberts, who played Iago, had a recurring role of the TV show Bones. How cool!
CONS
1. Effects: Sometimes the light was so bright that it reflected off of the metal stage, blinding the audience for several moments. And at one point soldiers started shooting their guns, which was so loud and jarring! And it wasn't just one or two shots: it was at least six! None of this added to the enjoyment of the play (and obviously disturbed my slumber!).
2. Costumes: It's not that the costumes were bad. But, I was sitting in the very last row, SO high up from the stage, that is was difficult to tell who was who when many of the men were wearing similar costumes (i.e. military uniforms). It would have been easier to understand if each character had his or her own distinguishable ensemble.
3. Plot: As mentioned, there isn't much of a story. It's just about mischievous Iago trying to cause trouble pretty much to the detriment of everyone else. He makes Othello believe that his wife Desdemona is cheating on him (when she isn't) and makes men hate each other over other lies. So there were lots of people talking (lying) to each other, an occasional fight broke out, and by the end several characters had been murdered. Lovely.
Again, I don't want to say that they did a bad job, because I know the actors and everyone else involved worked really hard to put this together. It just wasn't my taste, and I honestly don't regret missing the majority of it, even while sitting in the theater.
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