So last night I was very excited to have a nice cultured evening going to the theatre to watch 'Othello'..in Italian of course. But Teatro Verdi (the theatre in Brindisi) is very special because, in the process of building it, they uncovered some stunning Roman ruins. Instead of taking a few pictures and building on top of it, the builders preserved the structures and ensured the foundations of the theatre did not coincide with this amazing discovery. So it is built sort of on and around, so you can go underneath and see the Roman roads etc and when you enter the theatre they have used a glass floor so you can also look down into it while in the theatre itself. Stunning!
Well we found our seats and got settled, in the gallery of course because we weren't going to pay 35 euro, and realised that the theatre is HUGEE and could have done with some binoculars. When I looked at the stage I thought it looked a bit bare, but got over this because I thought as the play progressed they would bring out more of a set. But to describe how empty the stage was, there was a huge sheet covering the floor with a few mounds. At first I thought these mounds were people and Othello himself would rise up out of the floor in some sort of magical, suprising way. Wrong. These were purely bits of foam to cushion the landing when Emilia fell to the ground and Iago started awkwardly dry humping her. Hmmm. To add to the unimaginative stage, the back screen was purely blue...sort of like the default screen of the projectors in school before its connected to the computer. In addition, the music and background noises also left much to be desired, consisting of the occasional skwawking seagull and gushing waves. I guess they were going for the 'minimalistic' idea, but then again, there's a difference between minimalistic and purely empty.
Another reason to add to my opinion that this production probably had a 100 euro budget is the complete lack of props. I think I counted a grand total of 5; two swords, one helmet, a roll out map and of course THE handkerchief. Talk about having to use your imagination!
The actors seemed confident, a bit bland, but delivered the lines well enough. However, they were lacking in characters; the play lasted just under 2 hrs, VERY short for old Bill. This must have been because complete scenes were cut out due to only having roughly the main 8 characters. Othello was old, very old. He had greying hair and wrinkles and looked old enough to be some of the actors' grandfather.
Even still, despite the few flaws, it was an incredible experience and hearing Shakespeare in Italian was very different! The theatre was stunning but I can't say the Italian audience are all that encapsulated by Shakespeare, as I spotted multiple people playing games on their phones, lots of talking, two people sleeping and many toilet breaks. I laughed to myself thinking of the English audience and how many tuts and tellings off these people would have got. Overall, I am very glad I went, but if I had paid to see this in the UK, I think I would have left at the interval.
Well we found our seats and got settled, in the gallery of course because we weren't going to pay 35 euro, and realised that the theatre is HUGEE and could have done with some binoculars. When I looked at the stage I thought it looked a bit bare, but got over this because I thought as the play progressed they would bring out more of a set. But to describe how empty the stage was, there was a huge sheet covering the floor with a few mounds. At first I thought these mounds were people and Othello himself would rise up out of the floor in some sort of magical, suprising way. Wrong. These were purely bits of foam to cushion the landing when Emilia fell to the ground and Iago started awkwardly dry humping her. Hmmm. To add to the unimaginative stage, the back screen was purely blue...sort of like the default screen of the projectors in school before its connected to the computer. In addition, the music and background noises also left much to be desired, consisting of the occasional skwawking seagull and gushing waves. I guess they were going for the 'minimalistic' idea, but then again, there's a difference between minimalistic and purely empty.
Another reason to add to my opinion that this production probably had a 100 euro budget is the complete lack of props. I think I counted a grand total of 5; two swords, one helmet, a roll out map and of course THE handkerchief. Talk about having to use your imagination!
The actors seemed confident, a bit bland, but delivered the lines well enough. However, they were lacking in characters; the play lasted just under 2 hrs, VERY short for old Bill. This must have been because complete scenes were cut out due to only having roughly the main 8 characters. Othello was old, very old. He had greying hair and wrinkles and looked old enough to be some of the actors' grandfather.
Even still, despite the few flaws, it was an incredible experience and hearing Shakespeare in Italian was very different! The theatre was stunning but I can't say the Italian audience are all that encapsulated by Shakespeare, as I spotted multiple people playing games on their phones, lots of talking, two people sleeping and many toilet breaks. I laughed to myself thinking of the English audience and how many tuts and tellings off these people would have got. Overall, I am very glad I went, but if I had paid to see this in the UK, I think I would have left at the interval.
