“Foh!One may smell in such a will most rank, And then he argues that she cannot be trusted because she consented to marry Othello, who was not “of her own clime, complexion, and degree.” Iago continues, He chips away at Othello’s self-confidence and love for Desdemona, first with subtle hints, then with false evidence of infidelity. Iago publicly spews most of the play’s crude comments about Othello. Wounded pride and ambition fuel Iago’s vendetta against “the noble Moor,” but his racism is the ugliest thing about him. Othello appears to be the only black man in Venice, and not even his valor in war or his position as general of its army cannot shield him from ta society that sees him as less than human. Black Pantheris a morality play that pits altruism against vengeance, and fealty to tradition against the demands of the present. It’s a mashup of the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, Hamlet, and Shakespeare’s bloodier Richards and Henrys. T’Challa, the ruler of an unspoiled paradise, learns from his father’s ghost about a royal fratricide, which threatens the peace of his kingdom, leading to a mortal dual between cousins, and an epic battle between their supporters. It’s a credit to the cast that their characters cast shadows like human beings because the whole thing is Larger Than Life.
And while generations of critics and academics have psychoanalyzed and deconstructed the two main characters, the reason the play still rips your heart out is because Othello is entirely Othello, and Iago is Iago only.īlack Panther, on the other hand, is populated by archetypes: The Good King, The Loyal Lieutenant, The Evil Pretender, and The Brainiac. The stakes are life-and-death but the consequences are strictly personal. There are no kings or queens, no thrones to lose or gain, no dynasties to keep track of. The cast is small and the plot moves quickly.
Othello is one of Shakespeare’s more accessible plays.
The plot unfolds – unravels – until we are left with three corpses: two women who tell a truth that goes unheeded, and the only man of color, who is marked for doom from Act I, Scene I. Other than that, the stage was bare, the costumes minimal/modern, and the audience close - all the better to focus on some of Shakespeare’s greatest poetry and his most chilling portrait of human treachery. There was one breathtaking moment of theatrical magic in Trinity Rep’s Othello: a cloudburst of sand falls from above, transporting us from Venice to the island of Crete. Everything about Wakanda is beautiful and dignified, from architecture, to fashion, to etiquette (that arm-crossed salute is epic), and especially to the egalitarian society where women are smart, self-possessed, and not to be messed with. And that was the least of it.īlack Panther delivers a fully realized Afrocentric and Afro-futurist mythology in which an ancient African civilization flourishes for centuries - unconquered, uncolonized, and unconverted –– and develops into a modern Eden.
The breathless anticipation was perfectly captured by a viral video of a young man hugging the movie poster and shouting, “ This is what white people feel all the time?”Īs a superhero action flick, Black Pantherdelivered the goods: insane car chase, barroom brawl, high-tech weapons, futuristic medical procedures, and several extremely attractive actors.
Three days later, I saw Black Pantherand left the multiplex feeling like I’d been to church.Īnd ever since, the Shakespearean tragedy and the superhero blockbuster have been circling each other inside my head.īlack Panther’s release was a watershed event for African-Americans long before it opened and made a zillion dollars. I drove home from Providence feeling shaken up and wide-awake after seeing Trinity Repertory’s production of Othello.