Chiwetel Ejiofor on Othello (Shakespeare On Stage) by Chiwetel Ejiofor

Author:Chiwetel Ejiofor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nick Hern Books

Had it pleas’d heaven

To try me with affliction, had they rain’d

All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head,

Steep’d me in poverty to the very lips,

Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes,

I should have found in some place of my soul

A drop of patience; but, alas, to make me

The fixèd figure for the time of scorn

To point his slow and moving finger at!

It is one of the most exquisite pleas to heaven in the English language.

He goes on ‘But there, where I have garner’d up my heart…’ What does he mean by ‘there’? Is he talking about anywhere in particular?

It’s non-specific. He had met this girl and been totally blown away by the new emotion, by this feeling that he’d heard about but had never experienced. As a result, what is happening now is the most painful thing he’s ever suffered. And he cannot understand it. So when he says ‘But there, where I have garner’d up my heart’, he’s a man who is completely flummoxed, he’s knocked for six. He had never dreamed that could happen to him, or that this kind of agony was possible.

Act 4, Scene 3. Desdemona sings the haunting ‘Willow song’. At the beginning of the scene, Othello tells her: ‘Get you to bed / On th’ instant; I will be return’d forthwith. / Dismiss your attendant there – look’t be done.’ And he exits. Once again, it’s in front of Lodovico. If he’s planning the assassination, he doesn’t care about being overheard.

I don’t think he has any intention of getting away with it. There’s no sense of subterfuge.

It seems dead cold.

Yeah. He’s going to kill her, and he has ordered the death of Cassio. So they will both be dead. He will be arrested, and explain that they have been having an affair, and throw himself on the mercy of the court and try to prove his case.

On to Act 5, Scene 2, the final scene. How was it set up? Did you have a bed wheeled on? Was it a four-poster?

I don’t think it was a four-poster, but it was very ornate and regal. It had bold reds – beautiful. I wore a long flowing gown and was holding the lantern with a candle.

Othello’s opening line is ‘It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul.’ What does he mean? What is the cause?

I think that’s all of it. It’s Christianity, it’s military, it’s the reason to be. It’s her. She is it. They are it. It’s a multifaceted cause.

Desdemona is in the bed asleep and Othello says ‘Put out the light, and then put out the light.’ Then he explores a metaphor for doing so.

It’s an interesting metaphor because there are two ways of playing it. Either he’s about to put out the light, and then it occurs to him that he’s also going to put out the light of her. Or he realises beforehand and the whole line is driving towards the metaphor, which would be more lightly stated.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.