OTHELLO
with Babacar M’Baye Fall, Christophe Brault, Pierre-Alain Chapuis, Xavier Guittet, Alice Benoit, Mathilde Martineau, Samuel Bodin, Bertrand Fieret, Gaëtan Guérin… (current caste) / translation André Markowicz / dramatic art Bernard Pico / scenography Nathalie Holt / costumes Marc Anselmi / lights Michel Theuil / music Alain Bruel / assistant director Sophie Mayer / painting and sculptures Thierry Dalat / make-up Nathalie Charbaut / / / / / production Centre dramatique régional de Tours / / with the support of the DRAC Centre et de la Région Centre (Jeune Théâtre en Région Centre) and the support of the Fonds d’Insertion pour Jeunes Artistes Dramatiques, DRAC. and Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur / /
Wednesday, 16 January 2008 at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, 17 and Friday, 18 January 2008 at 8:30 p.m.
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE / DIRECTOR GILLES BOUILLON
Othello, a brave Moor general in the service of the Republic of Venice, suspects his wife Desdemona of infidelity. When the Turk army prepares to attack Cyprus, Othello leaves for combat, followed by his officer Iago, and his wife. Iago is jealous of the favours that the Moor bestows on the valorous Cassio. In his thirst for vengeance, he convinces Othello, by way of slanderous remarks, that Desdemona has betrayed him with Cassio...
"Everything seems to be given away in the title: The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. Othello is not Venetian," notes Gilles Boullion. "Despite his virtue as a warrior, an undeniable ‘champion’, he remains a foreigner: a barbarian in Venice, a black among whites. Yesterday, like today, otherness fuels fantasies and fear."
In Othello, as in all the great tragic masterpieces that he composed during the same era, Shakespeare scrutinises obstinately the fascination for evil, its power and its seduction. The enigma presented is that of a fall into horror, a monstrous metaphor, mental anguish. The enigma of destruction blind to virtue, to beauty, to love.
It is a dark story, harsh, of an infinite sadness. I love you, I kill you. That’s the heart of the tragedy. "At the same time," says Gilles Bouillon, "few dramatic works have the same power to evoke the carnal or delve into, in such a troubling way, sexual desire, animal fantasies, the connections between eroticism and death. An irresistible plunge into the dark."
