SKBS2243 DRAMA IN SCHOOL

A critique of Shakespeare Demystifieds Othello

by
NUR SYAHMIN ALYA BINTI MASRI (A141301)
TESL/YEAR 3 | SEMESTER II 2014/2015
FACUTY OF EDUCATION

for
DR. ZALINA BINTI MOHD LAZIM

A critique of Shakespeare Demystifieds Othello

Last Wednesday night on 23rd April 2015, TESL Year 3 Session 2014/2015 went to Kuala
Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (klpac) in Sentul Park to watch Othello, a play about love,
power, jealousy and ultimately, manipulation of human nature. The play was co-presented by
The Actors Studio Teater Seni Rakyat and KL Shakespeare Players under the arm of Shakespeare
Demystified that aspire to un-scarify the Bard.
Ensemble directing of the play was led by Lim Kien Lee who played Othello and
coaching and training of the casts were by Qahar Aqilah and also Kien Lee. The ensemble of
casts is as follows:

Lim Soon Heng Iago

David H. Lim Brabantio/ Montano/Lodovico
Arief Hamizan Cassio/Duke of Venice
Grace Ng Desdemona/Bianca
Sandee Chew Emilia
Kgia Loong Roderigo/Understudy for Emilia

To be honest, summarising the play when you dont understand it a hundred percent would
not be fair. However, through Shakespeare Demystifieds facebook page, an online review was
shared, written by Dinesh Kumar Maganathan in The Star Online and the author has the play
shorten down for the general mass to understand.
As far as the story goes, Othello is William Shakespeares tragedy about the African general
(Kien Lee) who marries the fair Desdemona and is revered as a gallant leader. When the
position of lieutenant opens up in the army, Othello overlooks his ensign Iago (Soon Heng)
and appoints the young Michael Cassio (Arief) instead.
Scorned, Iago hatches a wicked plan to murder Cassio and undo Othello himself by
engineering a series of events to make the Moor believe that his wife (Grace) and Cassio are
in fact lovers.
The play is supposed to be for 3 hours but Shakespeare Demystified performed it in their usual
100-minute abridged format that focuses on canon storyline in the original Shakespearean
English with narration to demystify the play in contemporary English. The play was interesting
and entertaining enough to keep me awake. After all, being Malay is already a barrier to fully
understand the script. Based on extended reading, the play has its own charm and the issues such
as jealousy, betrayal and revenge are still true even in modern times. Malaysians can also relate
to the interracial couple and the obstacles that come, being a multiculturalism country and all.

All the casts had performed splendidly. Their vocal quality is top notch and they are very
engaging. However the casts that shined that night would be Kien Lee as Othello, Soon Heng as
Iago and of course Grace as Desdemona. Kien Lee being the tallest stands tall as Othello, the
Moor of Venice. His confidence, his gait and expressions shows that he embraces Othello as a
leader who despite being African, black-skinned and what we call as the Other, still can rise to
the position he is. I have to disagree with Dinesh (in the article) saying that Kien Lee seems out
of place in the play with the way he brought Othello to life.
Iago played by the veteran Soon Heng definitely stole the scene. Being an antagonist
might have come naturally to Soon Heng now since he also played Shylock in the production of
The Merchant of Venice. Soon Heng totally shows Iago as the puppeteer behind the scenes with
his snickers to the audiences when one of his plots succeed. The scene where he said I am not
what I am though a bit confusing at the beginning works as foreshadow to all the plans he had
to undo Othello.
Desdemona played by Grace was enchanting especially in the Willow Act. Right from the
beginning it can be seen from her expressions and her demeanour that Desdemona loves Othello
and it breaks her heart that her husband does not trust her. When she sang the Willow Song, it
shows how heartbroken she is as she walked limply around the stage grabbing the audiences
attention from the boxes being set up. Even the melody is heartbreaking in which Grace compose
the tune herself.
The set is very minimal where there are only six boxes moved around. Of course, only
the boxes cant portray the time period for the play. This is where the audiences imagination is
being used. The lights used are the general lights, no switching it on and off whenever a scene
has ended. The lights are not that bright yet they are not that dim. It might give some more
emphasis if the production play with the lights a little bit. The sound played was only from a
drum, signaling when a new scene starts. But the original tune of the Willow song by Grace is
beautiful yet heartbreaking. The costumes and makeup were minimal as well. They used white
attire and black for Othello to show his ethnicity as African.
The audiences were interested and attentive enough because the 15 minutes Q&A seems
never ending. There are question about Biancas red attire and if the scene with Iago and Othello
shows Iago having feelings for Othello. Overall, I enjoyed the show but the narration discussing
the scenes should be done after the scenes in order for audiences to understand them themselves
first. But therere always pros and cons to that. As they use Shakespearean English, discussing
the scene beforehand give audiences the understanding in knowing whats going to happen
without them having to fully understand the dialogues. Unfortunately the anticipation would be
ruined.

REFERENCES
Dinesh Kumar. 2015. Shakespeare Demystifieds Othello: Got juice, but needs more seasoning.
http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Entertainment/Arts/On-Stage/2015/04/25/ShakespeareDemystifieds-Othello/ [26th April 2015]
Dinesh Kumar. 2015. Shakespeare Demystified chops Othello down to 100 minutes of juicy
bits.http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Entertainment/Arts/On-Stage/2015/04/21/ShakespeareDemystified-Othello-is-a-tale-of-intrigue-and-jealousy-driving-a-good-man-to-even-murder/
[26th April 2014]
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/othello/
http://kakiseni.com/events/shakespeare-demystified-othello-klpac/