New Canon’s ‘Othello’ doesn’t shy away from the issues that are still prevalent today.

We say social media and conspiracy theories are ruining the fabric of our society, but it seems things were not much better in the early 17th century when William Shakespeare penned The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice.

A wicked gossip and the "green-eyed monster" of jealousy were alive and well then and are still grand now, just as this timeless tragedy that New Canon Theatre presented as tragicomedy. Both terror and laughter are in order, as well as a warm blanket if you make a wise decision to watch the play at the Outdoor Forest Theater in Carmel.

“I am not what I am,” declares Iago (sly and charming J. Matthew Gordon) in the opening scene, and this is what all the characters will learn by the end of the play. The consequences are deadly. 

It’s the time of Venetian-Ottoman wars in the Mediterranean. Othello (wonderful Jonathan Bangs) is a Venetian general, who despite being a Moor (as African Muslims who conquered Spain in the 8th century were called), made a military career in one of the most prosperous Italian city-states—to the point that he got to marry Venetian senator’s daughter, Desdemona (always-delivering Sarah Dunnavant).

Iago is Othello’s jealous and unscrupulous standard-bearer who will not hesitate to get people, including Desdemona and his own wife, Emilia (Malinda DeRouen), killed while following his inner demons and his racism.  

It’s shocking to what extent the reality of a Venetian military campaign in Cyprus fades when set against a simple fact that one man suggests to another man that his wife sleeps with someone else. And all that because the wife accidentally drops and loses a handkerchief, picked up by Iago and presented to Othello as proof of adultery. One would think Othello a total idiot and a misogynist who refuses to discuss the matter with Desdemona openly, if not for the suffering that Bangs portrays so beautifully. The “bro” culture in Othello, so prevalent in the military environment, robs the females in the play of their voice, enhancing the sense of doom. 

The end of the play is powerfully delivered, thanks to the actors’ skills but also to the scenic design by Sean Aten. Demonic red lights and the sound of a beating human heart do the trick, preparing the audience for a dark finale.

“Have you prayed tonight, Desdemona?” asks Othello in a voice trembling from despair and madness, when he visits his wife’s bed for the last time, just minutes before he strangles her. That’s the moment when Iago’s mischief loses all its wit, lightness and charm and the audience experiences catharsis, this ultimate goal of all theater since its inception. 

Directed by Lisa Gaye Dixon, the play included a lot of bright and lively ensemble scenes where we can meet the presumed lover of Desdemona, careless but good-hearted Cassio (Jared Walters) or Desdemona’s cousin Lodovico (Gabriel Sanders), so handsome that, according to Emilia, Venetian ladies would walk barefoot to Palestine for his sake.

Othello and Cassio are played by Black actors and are both victimized in the play, not only by Iago, but also by Desdemona’s father (Craig Storm) who is opposed to his daughter marrying “a Moor.” It’s too late to cancel Shakespeare for casting white actors with faces painted black, but in the 21st century, perhaps more than ever, the language and jokes related to Blackness catch the audience's attention all the more, visibly built in within the very core of the European culture. 

New Canon did not shy away from emphasizing such issues in their Othello, successfully pulling off yet another local production—the second in the current season.

Othello is performed 7:30pm Thursdays-Saturdays and 6:30pm Sundays until June 29. Forest Theater, Santa Rita and Mountain View, Carmel. $60; $50/seniors, teachers, military; $27/community access tickets; $19/students. 275-1441, newcanontheatre.org.