With the direction of Antonio Calenda and Michele Placido as protagonist, the show takes place within a frame - that of the walls of Elsinore, the luxury of Venetian houses, the warmth of Cyprus- rich with inspiring views. The author has chosen to read its every complexity, entering into the characters' motives, concentrating on the dynamics of the soul.

That of the characters is a microcosm of masterfully drawn figures: from the co-protagonists (Cassio, Emilia, Roderigo), to the icy Iago corrupted by envy, to the splendid portraits of the protagonists: delicate and innocent Desdemona, one of the most charming and mysterious feminine creatures of the history of stage, and Othello, the brave, impulsive and fragile Moor.

Othello in this stage production is played by Michele Placido, who thus presents his last stage effort: The tragedy of Othello? It originates in the conflict between different cultures and civilisations. An incurable conflict that takes us back to current tragic events. Israel and the Arab world. Inerasable fractures, from which there is no return».

«My Othello - Placido adds - is different, a dramatic and 'promethean' lonely man. He fights for a cause he believes in. He is used by the Republic of Venice, exploited and immediately after removed from his role. And this is where the protagonist is lost, he crumbles... Desdemona's betrayal is just the last act of a man's tragedy. And his wife a sacrificial victim»

Strong of the talent and expressive art of Michele Placido, Antonio Calenda can play - at a staging level - on various reading planes, pointing, as usual, on Shakespeare's «contemporaneity», on the universality of the conflicts he portrays, such that they become a metaphor of the current world and its lacerating contradictions.

Othello
With Michele Placido and the actors of the Compagnia del Teatro stabile of Friuli-Venezia Giulia
On tour at the Teatro Argentina in Rome until the 21st April, and at the Il Rossetti theatre - Teatro stabile of Friuli-Venezia Giulia from the 17th to the 25th May.

April.2002

Il Rossetti (Calendar)
Teatro di Roma