The Pechersk Theater of Pantomime has opened a new season. Although Othello has been on the theater’s repertoire before, the current version is so unusual and different from the earlier one that it can be really considered an entirely new work of the troupe.
The actors who play in Othello follow the spirit, not the letter of Shakespeare. Although familiar with the famous plot, the spectator still does not have the faintest chance of relaxing. In the view of the theater’s artistic director Vira Mishneva, Iago (brilliantly played by N. Hrebinny) is not only an embodiment of envy and intrigue. He also suffers from unrequited love for Desdemona (T. Tsapok), he is not only a pretender but a true actor who turns out to be none other than Cassio and, eventually, the one who actually stages the drama or, to be more exact, the tragedy of Othello (V. Maksymenko). Yet, the hint is quite clear: Othello chose this role himself, putting on the mask of an envious Moor. When actors wear masks, they strictly follow the plot, but once they remove the masque they expose their true, not borrowed, vulnerable human essence. The are now heroes rather than mere characters, who put their hearts on the line for the audience — an outlandish and gripping world of fantasies, dreams, reminiscences, spiritual ups and downs, outbursts of passion and agonies of love.
That acting is a difficult craft is common knowledge, but working in the genre of pantomime (plastic drama) is twice as hard. For actors are expected to show not only immaculate physical shape, esthetic flair, and esprit de corps, but also a certain mental discipline. A mime who is unable to capture his own attention will never capture the spectator’s. Some of actors fail to meet the high standards required, especially if they earn only pennies. Several actors abandoned the company late last season. Yet, it is painful to know how much we, the audience, will lose out if the theater — and above all the noble genre of pantomime — fails to survive. There is still a glimmer of hope: new applicants are invited to the theater’s studio this fall. If the novices prove to be talented and hardworking enough, they will be given a chance to put on their own show, in which the thespian veterans will act only as advisers.
