The last Othello staged at Downstage was set in the time of the Māori Land Wars with Othello a Māori leader of a Pakeha army.  Here all the cast are Polynesian (which somewhat blurs the Race issue inherent in the play, though the director in her notes says it’s about Othello not being Venetian rather than being of a different hue). 

The production has a contemporary feel – the weapons of choice are torches and guns rather than swords.  When the Polynesian-ness is allowed to come through, it works like crazy – the pre- war dance, Othello and Desdemonda’s dance, the Tongan hymn, the astonishing fight sequences, the Cook Island drumming – these are the high points of the show.

The production needs a lot more of Polynesia in it, that’s the thing.  There is a degree of conservatism and restraint in the production that stops it reaching its full potential.  More Polynesia in the Othello would really make it what’s promised on the programme cover – Shakespeare as you’ve never seen it before!

You also know there’s a problem when people giggle when Desdemona is killed by her husband.  Hint to director – having a ‘corpse’ lie on their back means the audience is going to see them breath and twitch, it really does ‘kill’ the moment.  Iago’s overplaying of the villain’s role at times also took the tragedy out of some key scenes.  It is a tragedy not a comedy, after all.

So there are the problem areas, all of which can be sorted out, as can the clumsy set design.

There is more to say about the production’s strengths and likeability.  Semu Filipo has terrific presence (and what a voice!) and his Othello is commanding when needed, and tender when it counts.  Nice counterpoint with his Desdemona, Victoria Schmidt, who unlike some of her colleagues underplays rather than overplays her role.  This young actress shows good judgment and surprising maturity for a new graduate. 

Despite going overboard on the meaningful glares, Vau Atonio makes a good fist of the arch-villain Iago, while Cassio is a loveable fool as played by Lauie Sila.

There’s a good sense of ensemble and commitment from The Black Friars and I look forward to seeing the next production from them.
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Othello Polynesia begins intriguingly with some Cook Island drumming and a mimed prologue of the secret marriage of Othello and Desdemona. Behind them hangs a vast tapa cloth and beneath it a tapa covered rostrum that serves as a table and later a bed. The setting is simple as is the production as a whole, though the staging becomes entirely predictable.

As the heavily edited version of the famous play quickly progresses we realize that Othello is a Palagi: Iago tells Brabantio that "an old white ram is tupping your black ewe." By casting Semu Filipo as Othello the racial undertones of the play, which are outlined in a programme note, are undermined.

Though he is dressed in white (Iago is in black, of course) he is clearly Polynesian for he dances to the manner born with Desdemona and then in a boisterous quintet with Roderigo, Cassio, Montano and Iago when they celebrate their victory in Cyprus. At no point is he marginalized or does he appear the outsider, the awkward foreigner in an alien culture.

The songs further confuse the issue: The Cannikin Clink, the soldiers’ drinking song, becomes a Polynesian song but Desdemona’s Willow Song sung just before her murder is sung in English (and very touchingly too by Victoria Schmidt in a an elegant performance). It is also never clear when the events are taking place what with wooden daggers, a beer bottle, an Elizabethan purse, and revolvers.

Vau Antonio avoids the mistake of many Iagos who make him evil incarnate; the casualness and coolness of his plotting of Othello’s downfall is far more frightening than any obvious devil. The planting of the seeds of doubt in Othello’s mind is nicely done.

Semu Filipo’s Othello is to start with a jovial general. His speech to the Senate about his military prowess is almost matter-of-fact but when Iago’s poison starts to work the changes in Othello are believable, and though he tackles the almost impossibly difficult speeches (‘Whip me, ye devils’ and ‘Farewell the tranquil mind’) bravely, he made the ‘It is the cause’ quietly moving before the production marred the final moments of the play.
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Steeping Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy Othello in the Polynesian culture, with an all-Pasifika cast, works a treat. The sense of an island community where reputation means everything, where being shamed is as bad as it gets, serves the story well. It offers a credible context for the provocation of jealousy, the universally recognised "green-eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on", to a level where anger soon escalates into murderous rage.

"We haven’t focussed so much on the domestic tragedy," said director Michelle Johansson on TV3’s Nightline last night. "We’re focussed on race, identity and brotherhood; warriors … and those are themes that we want to bring out of our Othello."

"Othello is a play of diametrically opposed absolutes," a programme note headed "Race" concludes, "and in the protagonist the audience is presented with both good and evil; love and hate – BLACK AND WHITE."

The play is still set in Venice and Cyprus. The only text change has been to reverse "black" and "white". Thus Iago tells Brabantio that "Even now … an old white ram is tupping your black ewe." (I, i, 89-90) And by the time the "moor", Othello, has let Iago convince him that Desdemona is cheating on him with his lieutenant, Cassio, he wonders if it is because "I am white and have not those soft parts of conversation that chamberers have", that she has strayed. (III, iii, 265-7) For that I take it we should read that he is not in touch with the way her ‘in-group’ converses.

The colour-coding of clothing is not, however, inverted. Iago and Roderigo (whose unrequited love of Desdemona allows Iago to manipulate him) wear black while Othello, Desdemona and Cassio – the Florentine – all wear white. (Others wear patterned clothes.) So black=bad; white=good, at least until the good moor goes bad.

In the first production of Othello Polynesia (Fale Pasifika, University of Auckland, mid-February 2008), although the actor who played Othello could pass as Palagi, I understand he played it Polynesian.

This time – with just 3-week’s rehearsal! – Semu Filipo takes the role. He makes a superb job of it too and, being of Samoan and Tokelauan descent, in every well-modulated phase of his decline from noble hero to deranged murderer, he presents as Pasifika through-and-through.

So do they all, in what comes across as a hermetically sealed community. No-one is non-Polynesian. What, then, has race got to do with it?

This Othello can dance (an eager rooster tailing his hip-twitching chook), sing, fight, speak and orate Pasifika-style with the best of them, and the power those cultural dimensions bring to the play feeds strongly into the passions that drive the plot to its tragic end.

Yet the text tells us he and Cassio are outsiders, and this is what Iago plays upon to insult, vilify and demonise them, in revenge for Othello’s promoting of Cassio to Lieutenant over him. The only way I can reconcile it all, then, is to see them as coming from different island or tribal groups, which allows Iago his ‘fear or difference’ but leaves the black / white aspect relating only to the good / bad values. But let that be …

The whole cast has a good understanding of the text and their roles and while the Polynesian accents and cadences may mean some ears don’t get every word, the tenor of each scene is clear from the way they inhabit the action.

Vau Antonio’s Iago is a matter-of-fact, sociopathic villain who relishes the escalation of violence and has no jot of moral qualm. A minimalist drop of the brow moves him from "honest Iago" to conniving, contriving villain. Lauie Sila’s Cassio is large, relaxed, a lovely singer and easily able to look after himself in a fight.

Victoria Schmidt brings a natural stature, deep-set ‘goodness’ and innocent trust to Desdemona. By comparison her maid Emilia, as played by Irene Ongoongo, is clearly ‘walking on eggshells’, craving husband Iago’s approval while fearing his next dismissal or outburst. Ongoongo’s composition for ‘The Willow Song’, played by her on guitar and sung by both women, offers an oasis of beauty before the brutality takes over.

Tani Aiono (Roderigo), Misipele Tofilau (Brabantio), Tavai Fa’asavalu (Montano) and Asalemo Tofete (joining the ensemble at the last moment to play the Duke), all bring credibility to their roles. While director Michelle Johansson must be credited with bringing great coherence to this production, she needs to tell herself to bring more dimension to her own rendition of Cassio’s mistress Bianca (e.g. play it as if she truly loves him, so that her "O Cassio!" on finding him badly wounded elicits something more than a laugh).  

Unintended laughs also need to be avoided by bringing firearms into the action earlier so that their sudden use – in a ‘modern Polynesia’ that apparently includes cloth coin purses and parchment scrolls – does not undermine the climactic drama.

Radical editing of the text keeps things moving throughout but robs the end of any opportunity to dwell on the tragic outcome or get value from watching a mute Iago face the enormity of his actions. On balance, however, it is quite refreshing for them to get on with it without over-stating the juicy bits, although we have to keep our wits about us to emotionally engage with the increasing injustice.

The fights with sticks, be they practice or in earnest, and the full-on martial arts bouts are superbly staged and far more dramatic than any violence done with blade or barrel. And the music – mostly arranged by Tupapa’a Maea and Misipele Tofilau, with Misipele and Xaria Tofilau providing most of the live music, sometimes joined by other cast members – enriches the soundscape greatly.

Over all the brilliance of the Bard shines through, compelling us to contemplate afresh how corrosive the doubting of self and others can be.
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