Review: 4CP’s ‘Othello’ leaves you wanting Moor

There’s a theater game used to teach budding actors to focus on the content of, not just recite, their lines. The idea is that they know the lines but speak gibberish during at least one rehearsal, to ensure that they understand the emotion behind the words.
Sadly, it seems that a key actor in “Othello,” which opened last Friday at Four County Players in Barbours-ville, is doing that unintentionally.
“Othello” is one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, about jealousy and loss of reason in the face of it. It also features one of the bard’s most powerful villains, Iago, a soldier so angry at being passed over for a promotion that he deliberately leads Othello, who trusts him implicitly, to believe that his wife, Desdemona, has cuckolded him. Bloodshed ensues.

Certainly, 4CP’s production of this, directed by Clinton Johnson, is an unusual interpretation. But unusual interpretations can sometimes work. Unfortunately, this one does not.
The problem isn’t necessarily in Johnson’s directorial vision, though there are some issues there. The problem is that David Vaughn Straughn, as Iago, swallows his words, neither enunciating nor projecting adequately. It’s enough to make you wonder if you’ve gone deaf.
Given that the play begins with Iago explaining his reasons for behaving as he does, then centers around him, an audience unable to understand what he’s is saying is pretty much lost, unless they know the play. Even then it can be exhausting, requiring exceptional listening effort. What you hear from Straughn is essentially mumbling, occasionally punctuated by an understandable word or two.

Maybe this was unique to Saturday’s performance for some reason. Johnson has proved himself to be a capable director, but it’s not unusual for directors to falter with shows they especially love. If Straughn’s problem with clarity in dialog was unique that night, Johnson still should have tamed the overacting that went with it.
It does appear that Straughn has some genuine acting talent, but it’s impossible to know without being able to understand him. And, at Saturday’s performance, while he muffled his lines, he overdid the acting so seriously that it wouldn’t have been surprising to see him twirl a mustache and rub his hands. Johnson should have tamed that tendency during rehearsals.
The rest of the cast is very good, with strong performances by Ray Smith as the title character, Ben Jamieson as Cassio, and Claire McGurk as Desdemona. Marcia Pents is exceptional as Bianca, Cassio’s wife and Desdemona’s servant.
In fact, most of the acting is quite good, but Straughn’s lack of clarity affects the entire show. There also are some problems with Johnson’s blocking.
The set, designed by Kerry Moran, recycles the two-level set that’s been used in recent shows, and it could work, had the movement been better thought out.
A good portion of the beginning of the play is set on an apron stage right, with the next scenes on an apron stage left, and some movement on the upper level, with little or no action center stage, causing the audience to look almost anywhere but directly in front of them, until later in the first act and part of the second.

The lighting also was odd at Saturday’s performance. Since designer Tracie Skipper has shown herself to be competent in other shows, it looks as though an entire circuit of lights that would reach center stage may not have been functioning on Saturday. If it was a deliberate choice by Skipper or Johnson, it was an odd one.
Wren Curtis’ sound design also is a problem in a show the audience already has to work to understand. It too often becomes intrusive, getting in the way of lines even when the actors speak clearly.
Johnson has shown himself to be a good director in the past, and that does come through here in most of his casting, and in most of the actors’ work communicating with other characters. The pacing is generally good as well, though perhaps a little too rapid.

But the inability to understand Vaughn’s Iago affects the whole show so badly that the rest of it is tough to judge.
Johnson’s heart clearly was in this show, but his usually good directorial skills seem to have faltered here.
Those who attempt Shakespeare in community theater have a responsibility to produce top quality work, because a community theater production may be some audience member’s first experience with that wonderful storytelling and language. A bad production might mean it’s also that person’s last.