Ewan McGregor as Iago
Posted by The Bard on 5 December 2007
The current production of Othello at the Donmar Theatre, with Ewan McGregor playing Iago, is described as the hottest ticket in town (regular tickets for the run that ends in February 2008 are already sold out), with black market tickets fetching $2,000. The apparent attraction is Ewan McGregor in his first Shakespearean performance. However, if the reviews in the four “quality” newspapers are anything to go by, the real attraction of the production is an excellent performance of Othello by black actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. As for McGregor, the Daily Telegraph opined: “He often seems to have trouble detecting the pulse of the verse and crucially lacks the vitality the role demands. . . . you would at least expect McGregor to bring a thrill of charisma and a dangerous presence to the stage. Not a bit of it. He is static and dull, his only trick the occasional adoption of an implausible grin.” The Guardian is somewhat more charitable: “Ewan McGregor gives a decent, robust, if insufficiently complex, account. . . . McGregor’s great asset, paradoxically, is charm. . . . [Instead of] the impotent obsessive imagined by many actors, we get simply an enigmatic destroyer.” However, McGregor fans need not despair, if The Times is anything to go by: “There are times when his diction is fine and they are often the right ones . . . He’s vigorous, hard, mean and he does hate, really hate. Hate enough to give us Shakespeare’s play as it poignantly, painfully should be.” And The Independent is full of praise: “With Chiwetel Ejiofor as Othello and Ewan McGregor as his nemesis, Iago, the production finds two actors who can go against the grain of current notions of how these roles should be played and who can furnish us with new insights into the hero’s downfall.”
For anyone still interested (and it sounds as though Ejiofor’s performance is very much worth watching), there is a very limited number of tickets sold only on the day of performance.
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Nadia Bradwell said
There were some really good reviews for Ewan Mcgregor’s Iago that you didn’t mention. Especially from the critic’s who watched the play without bias. The way he plays Iago contributes to the uniqueness of the play and helps to return the focus back to Othello. He was quite brave to to do this as an actor.