THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 16, 1994 TAG: 9407160039
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
A HUSBAND consumed by jealousy. A violent murder. A former national hero sinks into the depths of tragedy.
No, his name is not O.J.
He is Othello, on stage at the Virginia Shakespeare Festival, now in its 16th season.
In ``Othello,'' the title character yet again emerges as the dumbest of all Shakespeare's fallen nobles. He falls for the schemings of the conniving Iago, who sets up the marital suspicions as easily as setting up pins to be struck by a bowling ball.
The role is, however, deceptively difficult. It has to be a mixture of early nobility mixed with eventual downfall. If the balance is not just right, Othello can be a simpleton unworthy of such tragedy. He must initially appear as the triumphant general, returning to the isle of Cyprus from a successful campaign against the Turks.
It is love that undoes him. His passion for Desdemona, his wife, makes it easy for him to believe that she has cuckolded him with the handsome Cassio.
Nothing quite prepares us for Bill Grimmette's compelling but uneven performance as Othello. He initially suggests the fame of the character but approaches it from a naturalistic stance that almost smacks of Uncle Tom. In the second act, he pulls all the stops, complete with a fit and a pop-eyed rage that is something to behold.
Grimmette, at 50, is the right age to play the general - old enough to be both revered by the world and foolish about love. He is this season's guest artist and is a veteran of film and stage. He knows that he has the role of a lifetime here and he runs with it.
Who is to say that his unbridled fury is overplayed? Obsession is foolproof as well as critic-proof.
In any case, Grimmette is eminently watchable and a notable improvement over the festival's last, unfortunate, brash-and-young 1983 Othello.
This still leaves Robert A. Goddard III's Iago to steal the show. Goddard, a four-year veteran of the festival, manages to turn the conniving villain into a logical being who never quite snarls. He approaches the part with a levity that smacks more of discipline than showiness. Grimmette's Othello is, in fact, a believable victim for his treachery.
Elizabeth Zins is a blonde and lovely Desdemona, but she lacks some of the quiet and willful strength that the character could have. This is a pure and innocent Desdemona, which indeed she should be, but the character is more interesting when a trace of the flirt is added. Davis McCallum is a somewhat gawky and youthful Cassio - hardly the force who might logically have inspired this degree of jealously.
The production is directed by J.H. Crouch, founding director of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, who has kept his young supporting cast reined to the dramatic goal.
It is a little disturbing, though, that the Virginia Shakespeare Festival now portrays itself as training center for interns. The Shakespeare Theater Association of American newsletter calls its present duo of productions ``laboratory vehicles for coaching and practice.'' The festival, up until now, has been better than that - though it's not known for daring interpretations.
If audiences are to support it, this festival must continue to be more than a recital center for acting classes.
Even if we're not to get new interpretations, could we, after 16 years, please have a new set? That same old Old Globe set, first designed in 1978, is rolled out yet again and there is little question that it will even be required to suggest the forest of ``Midsummer Night's Dream'' next. Those two staircases have had a workout and served their purpose - even with ``restoration'' in 1992 and an ``update'' in 1993.
This wooden Elizabethan facade is surely the most-seen set in local theater history. It's time that each new production require a new staging - and setting. (Do the interns have any classes in set design? If so, why not let them have a go at it?)
The Virginia Shakespeare Festival is one of the great success stories of local theater. The current production preserves its standards. MEMO: THEATER REVIEW
What: ``Othello'' by William Shakespeare, presented by the Virginia
Shakespeare Festival
Where: Phi Beta Kappa Hall at College of William and Mary in
Williamsburg
When: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday at 8 p.m. Also July 26, 28, 30.
How much: $12 ($20 for a ticket to include ``A Midsummer Night's
Dream'')
Call: Call 1-221-2674 by CNB