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Below are a few photos of Shakespare in Delaware Park's 2007 production of Othello by William Shakespeare, Directed by Saul Elkin. All photos by Lawrence Rowswell.
The play opensIn a street in Venice, the villain Iago complains to Roderigo that Othello the Moor chose Cassio to be his lieutenant, rather than Iago. Iago vows to stay loyal to Othello only as long as it works to his advantage. They then inform Barbantio that his daughter Desdemona is sleeping with Othello. Barbantio hesitates to believe them, since Roderigo has been an unwelcome suitor to his daughter, but he soon finds she is missing. At Othello's house, Cassio and other officers arrive summoning Othello to the Duke of Venice on urgent matters. Barbantio then arrives and orders Othello arrested, until he learns of the Dukes summons... |
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| Desdemona hastens to a clandestine tryst. |
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| Ludovico a Venetian Elder. |
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OTHELLO
Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, My very noble and approved good masters, That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter, It is most true; true, I have married her: The very head and front of my offending Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech, And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace: For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith, Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used Their dearest action in the tented field, And little of this great world can I speak, More than pertains to feats of broil and battle, And therefore little shall I grace my cause In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience, I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms, What conjuration and what mighty magic, For such proceeding I am charged withal, I won his daughter. |
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BRABANTIO
My daughter! O, my daughter! DUKE OF VENICE Senator Dead? BRABANTIO Ay, to me; She is abused, stol'n from me, and corrupted By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks; For nature so preposterously to err, Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense, Sans witchcraft could not |
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My noble father,
I do perceive here a divided duty: To you I am bound for life and education; My life and education both do learn me How to respect you; you are the lord of duty; I am hitherto your daughter: but here's my husband, And so much duty as my mother show'd To you, preferring you before her father, So much I challenge that I may profess Due to the Moor my lord. |
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BRABANTIO
God be wi' you! I have done. Please it your grace, on to the state-affairs: I had rather to adopt a child than get it. Come hither, Moor: I here do give thee that with all my heart Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel, I am glad at soul I have no other child: For thy escape would teach me tyranny, To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord. |
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OTHELLO
The tyrant custom, most grave senators, Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war My thrice-driven bed of down: I do agnise A natural and prompt alacrity I find in hardness, and do undertake These present wars against the Ottomites. Most humbly therefore bending to your state, I crave fit disposition for my wife. Due reference of place and exhibition, With such accommodation and besort As levels with her breeding. |
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DESDEMONA
That I did love the Moor to live with him, My downright violence and storm of fortunes May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdued Even to the very quality of my lord: I saw Othello's visage in his mind, And to his honour and his valiant parts Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate. So that, dear lords, if I be left behind, A moth of peace, and he go to the war, The rites for which I love him are bereft me, And I a heavy interim shall support By his dear absence. Let me go with him. OTHELLO Let her have your voices. Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not, To please the palate of my appetite, Nor to comply with heat--the young affects In me defunct--and proper satisfaction. But to be free and bounteous to her mind: And heaven defend your good souls, that you think I will your serious and great business scant For she is with me: no, when light-wing'd toys Of feather'd Cupid seal with wanton dullness My speculative and officed instruments, That my disports corrupt and taint my business, Let housewives make a skillet of my helm, And all indign and base adversities Make head against my estimation! |
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IAGO
Thus do I ever make my fool my purse: For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane, If I would time expend with such a snipe. But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor: And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets He has done my office: I know not if't be true; But I, for mere suspicion in that kind, Will do as if for surety. He holds me well; The better shall my purpose work on him. Cassio's a proper man: let me see now: To get his place and to plume up my will In double knavery--How, how? Let's see:-- After some time, to abuse Othello's ear That he is too familiar with his wife. He hath a person and a smooth dispose To be suspected, framed to make women false. The Moor is of a free and open nature, That thinks men honest that but seem to be so, And will as tenderly be led by the nose As asses are. I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light. |
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Cassio and Montano
CASSIO Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle, That so approve the Moor! O, let the heavens Give him defence against the elements, For I have lost us him on a dangerous sea. MONTANO Is he well shipp'd? CASSIO His bark is stoutly timber'd, his pilot Of very expert and approved allowance; Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death, Stand in bold cure. |
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EMILIA
You shall not write my praise. IAGO No, let me not. |
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EMILIA
How if fair and foolish? |
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Iago and Roderigo Away, I say; go out, and cry a mutiny. |
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EMILIA
I am glad I have found this napkin: This was her first remembrance from the Moor: My wayward husband hath a hundred times Woo'd me to steal it; but she so loves the token, For he conjured her she should ever keep it, That she reserves it evermore about her To kiss and talk to. I'll have the work ta'en out, And give't Iago: what he will do with it Heaven knows, not I; I nothing but to please his fantasy. |
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OTHELLO
Ha! ha! false to me? IAGO Why, how now, general! no more of that. OTHELLO Avaunt! be gone! thou hast set me on the rack: I swear 'tis better to be much abused Than but to know't a little. |
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OTHELLO
O, that the slave had forty thousand lives! One is too poor, too weak for my revenge. Now do I see 'tis true. Look here, Iago; All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven. 'Tis gone. Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell! Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught, For 'tis of aspics' tongues! |
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CASSIO
Pardon me, Bianca: I have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd: But I shall, in a more continuate time, Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca, Giving her DESDEMONA's handkerchief Take me this work out. BIANCA O Cassio, whence came this? This is some token from a newer friend: To the felt absence now I feel a cause: Is't come to this? Well, well. CASSIO Go to, woman! Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth, From whence you have them. You are jealous now That this is from some mistress, some remembrance: No, in good troth, Bianca. BIANCA Why, whose is it? CASSIO I know not, sweet: I found it in my chamber. I like the work well: ere it be demanded-- As like enough it will--I'ld have it copied: Take it, and do't; and leave me for this time. |
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OTHELLO
Lie with her! lie on her! We say lie on her, when they belie her. Lie with her! that's fulsome. --Handkerchief--confessions--handkerchief!--To confess, and be hanged for his labour;--first, to be hanged, and then to confess.--I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus. Pish! Noses, ears, and lips. --Is't possible?--Confess--handkerchief!--O devil!-- |
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DESDEMONA
Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia? EMILIA I know not, madam. DESDEMONA Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse Full of crusadoes: and, but my noble Moor Is true of mind and made of no such baseness As jealous creatures are, it were enough To put him to ill thinking. EMILIA Is he not jealous? DESDEMONA Who, he? I think the sun where he was born Drew all such humours from him. |
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DESDEMONA
Will you come to bed, my lord? OTHELLO Have you pray'd to-night, Desdemona? DESDEMONA Ay, my lord. OTHELLO If you bethink yourself of any crime Unreconciled as yet to heaven and grace, Solicit for it straight. DESDEMONA Alas, my lord, what do you mean by that? OTHELLO Well, do it, and be brief; I will walk by: I would not kill thy unprepared spirit; No; heaven forfend! I would not kill thy soul. |
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OTHELLO
Yes: 'tis Emilia. By and by. She's dead. 'Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio's death.-- The noise was here. Ha! no more moving? Still as the grave. Shall she come in? were't good?-- I think she stirs again:--no. What's best to do? If she come in, she'll sure speak to my wife: My wife! my wife! what wife? I have no wife. O insupportable! O heavy hour! Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe Should yawn at alteration. |
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EMILIA
Thou hast not half that power to do me harm As I have to be hurt. O gull! O dolt! As ignorant as dirt! thou hast done a deed-- I care not for thy sword; I'll make thee known, Though I lost twenty lives.--Help! help, ho! help! The Moor hath kill'd my mistress! Murder! murder! |
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OTHELLO
I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee: no way but this; Killing myself, to die upon a kiss. |
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CAST:
*Member Actors' Equity Association |
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Special Thanks to: |