November 21, 2013
The GazetteNovember 15, 2013
By Pat Donnelly
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Multitasking artist Moodie revisits role of Othello 11 years later
MONTREAL -- The role of Shakespeare’s Othello has been played by many great actors, but fewer playwrights, and fewer still actor/playwright/directors.
Andrew Moodie is best known as the playwright who created a sensation with his Chalmers Award-winning play, Riot, in 1996. In recent years, however, he has been juggling all three pursuits simultaneously.
At the moment, he’s concentrating on his acting — in Othello, a Segal Centre Production, presented in association with Scapegoat Carnivale, directed by Alison Darcy, which begins previews at the Segal Centre on Sunday.
“I always say that if you see another play from me it’s because my acting career has tanked,” Moodie joked as he made his way through his salad and our interview at the same time — like a true multi-tasker.
Playing Othello means a lot to Moodie, whose Jamaican father insisted on his early acquaintance with Shakespeare. By the time he was 12, the Ottawa-born artist had memorized entire passages from Othello.
He got his first crack at the role 11 years ago, in Toronto, outdoors, with Shakespeare in the Ruff, directed by Michael Waller. His performance was nominated for a Dora Award.
“I was incredibly grateful for the opportunity,” he said. “But I felt that I was a little young.”
He was in his mid-30s at the time. Now, at 46, he’s determined to give all he’s got.
“What was fascinating to me,” he added, “was that Shakespeare gave Othello and Desdemona not only a racial difference, but an age difference. He didn’t have to do that. But it gives the character (Othello) a depth of soul and feeling. After that first experience, I wanted to play the role again, when I was older, in order to be true to what the playwright intended.”
One particular passage from the play haunts him.
“It’s the ‘blow me about in winds’ speech that I’ve had memorized since I was 12,” he said. “I’ve been saying it, like living in it. It’s a touchstone in my life.”
When Moodie was growing up, there were few positive representations of black men in film, theatre or television — until the Bill Cosby show. And before his play Riot, there were zero Canadian plays that presented the black community as a cultural mosaic that included Nova Scotians, Jamaicans and Americans in the mix. It was a revelation.
Moodie performed in Riot when Black Theatre Workshop presented it in Montreal. They have also produced his Ladysmith and A Common Man’s Guide to Loving Women.
He also spent a season at Stratford.
Recently, however, film (Total Recall) and television (Beauty and the Beast, Saving Hope) have taken up more of his time. He’s a family man, with two young daughters (Ariana, 10, Zora, 8). Theatre doesn’t always pay the bills.
After this Othello, another wish remains on his bucket list: “I would love to play Iago,” he confessed. “I mean, Sean’s doing a wonderful job. But I am a little jealous of him, because it’s always fun to play the villain.”
Besides casting Moodie as Othello, director Darcy has recruited Sean Arbuckle from the Stratford ranks to play Iago. “He speaks the most of all Shakespearean characters,” she said of Iago. “It’s a massive task.”
But she doesn’t play favourites. “All of the other characters are so important in the play. It’s called Othello and many people call it Iago’s play, but it’s everybody’s play. Unless you have a strong Emelia and a strong Desdemona, a strong Cassio, a good solid Roderigo, all of those — it’s all of the pieces. You really need them. Otherwise Iago’s plans fall to pieces and Othello never gets manipulated and the whole play never happens.”
The role of Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, will be played by Darcy’s own father, Maurice Podbrey.
The text has been trimmed. “We’ve edited as much as we could without absolutely carving its heart out,” she said. “We’ve been trying to get it down to two hours and 20 minutes with intermission. We might go over that. But the original is over 3½ hours. Joseph Shragge (the assistant director) and I have been working since this summer trying to make sure that we don’t cut anything, not just from the storyline, but that would kill the rhythm, kill the poetry or the soul of the character.”
No character was spared the axe, Darcy said, not even Othello.
This is not going to be deconstructed Shakespeare, nor even modern dress. “I decided to keep it in its original framework,” she said. “I’m going with the original time and period, although the look and feel of the design has a definite modern, contemporary edge. It’s esthetically spare and fluid, using shapes and lines. Not terribly ornate. I really wanted to kind of strip things away in order to reveal the beauty of the play and the words themselves. As the audiences here (at the Segal Centre) haven’t had a Shakespeare in about 10 years, I wanted to present a clean, unadorned production for them.
“Of course, it’s got my stamp all over it,” she added.
Othello, by William Shakespeare, at the Segal Centre, previews Nov. 17-20, opens Nov. 21, runs until Dec. 1. Call 514-739-7944 or visit www.segalcentre.org