Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

“Othello Was a White Man”: Review of Othello (directed by Luk Perceval for Münchner Kammerspiele) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, April 2006

2007; Routledge; Volume: 3; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17450910701460932

1745-0926

Christian M. Billing,

Italian Fascism and Post-war Society

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. Thieme and Perceval obviously have a very productive working relationship, which may well be a significant reason for Perceval's casting choices in Othello. Thieme played Richard III in Perceval's recently acclaimed production Schlachten! (Slaughter!)—an epic and characteristically liberal adaptation of Shakespeare's first tetralogy of history plays. For his performance as Richard, Thieme was awarded Actor of the Year in 2000. 2. Günter Senkel and Feridun Zaimoglu have collaborated on a number of theatrical scripts. The latter is a Turkish-born immigrant to Germany who is deeply committed to the exploration of racial issues. The RSC programme states that "he fights against a misleading interpretation of any multicultural matters." It is perhaps largely due to his involvement in the scripting of this version of Othello that the play's racism takes the direct form it does—for it is not difficult to see the ways in which a Turkish immigrant to Germany may illuminate the issue of racism better than a native-born German. The matter is of particular interest with regards to the unabashed use that this play makes of the vocabulary of the holocaust. 3. The fact that a lack of physical blackness in the character of Othello should lead to such an effect is, of course, in itself interesting. It speaks volumes both about the original production conditions of the play and its probable mode of first performance, as well as to the inability of modern audiences (and many directors) to see beyond the race issue when a black actor assumes the role. 4. Like Thieme, Julia Jentsch also carries the weight of a previous theatrical role in this production. She was awarded Best Actress at the 2005 Berlinale and honoured at the German and European Film Award for her performance in the title role of Sophie Scholl—Die letzten Tage (Sophie Scholl—The Last Days). This film, directed by Marc Rothemund, details the struggles of Sophie and Hans Scholl, members of the "Weisse Rose" resistance group that distributed leaflets in Munich in 1943 against the Nazi regime. Scholl was tried for her crimes and condemned to death by the Nazi authorities. 5. They say that Belgians have no sense of humour, yet Perceval's decision to place as his dominant stage image two monochrome pianos in the missionary position—a black "ram" tupping a white "ewe"—is a work of understated comic genius. The director subtly hints at his visual gag when he states in the programme notes that "this piano sounds like an animal". Like most of the play's other moments of laughter, however, a brief instant of amusement soon creates a profound sense of moral vertigo: the audience chuckle but are immediately shocked by their complicity with the misogyny and racism of the image. The more one considers the pianos, particularly with regards to their centrality to the entire performance, the more one realizes the ways in which they are being used to remind audiences (in a surprisingly sexually graphic way for two musical instruments), of the act of fornication that had occurred between one of "us" and one of "them". An attitude repeatedly emphasized in the text, and with good reason, as the thought of them "coming over here and taking our women" is often one of the most potent images used to incite racial hatred—especially in wartime. The image is also interesting given Desdemona's passivity, innocence and naivety—a white piano rendered useless as an instrument as a result of the position it had taken under a black "male" piano. 6. Jens Thomas is a jazz musician and composer. His score is an integral part of the production and frames or accompanies virtually the entire performance (with some notable examples such as Iago's temptation of Othello). The composer's style varies from quasi-Bach etudes to Wyndham Hill style compositions and (slightly less successfully) German folk-rock. There were also elements of string plucking and prepared piano music that were reminiscent of Berkoff's use of the instrument in the Abbey Theatre production of Salome and also Peter Brook's uses of Asian instrumentation. At times, particularly with Roderigo and Othello, the piano is used powerfully to intercut, augment and underscore aggressive, quasi-balletic sections of movement. The scene in which Iago baits Othello and sows the seeds of jealousy is interesting because it contains no piano underscoring. Indeed, Jens Thomas turns here to observe the action onstage. Towards the end of the scene underscoring returns, but other than this there is virtual silence in the auditorium as Iago whispers (not a stage whisper but an inaudible real whisper) the facts of Desdemona's betrayal to Othello, who punctuates this voyeuristic silence with decreasingly resilient denials of such allegation's plausibility. 7. One particularly nice moment of theatrical intertextuality is achieved through absolute stillness when Pregler, who, the programme notes inform us, is a veteran of the Kammerspiele production of Beckett's Waiting for Godot, utters the words "let's go" and then stands stock still with Roderigo for an eternity of stage time. 8. At the RSC, the play was presented in German with English surtitles provided by Werkhuis (Belgium). All quotations from the play that appear in this review are taken from a copy of the script supplied to the author by Münchner Kammerspiele. I am grateful to Cordula Brucker for providing me with this playtext, and also to Stefanie Bauerochse for help with translations from the German. 9. The script was deemed to be so shocking by the RSC festival director that she felt the need to warn reviewers about its profanities by email forty-eight hours before the show. 10. The vulgar jokes come thick and fast: "Iago: Ah ja, wie wär's damit: Warum haben Frauen zwei Löcher? Damit man sie wie einen Sechserpack tragen kann, wenn sie besoffen sind" (O yeah, what do you think about this one: Why do chicks have two holes? So you can carry them around like a six-pack, when they're drunk). "Was sagt ein Blinder, wenn er an einem Fischladen vorbeigeht? Hallo Mädels!" (What does a blind man say when he passes a fishmonger's? Hi girls!). "Was haben Pussyfressen und die Mafia gemeinsam? Ein Ausrutscher mit der Zunge und du steckst in großer Scheiße" (What have cunt-licking and the Mafia got in common? One slip of the tongue and you're in deep shit).