Based in the heart of Hammersmith is the beautiful Lyric Hammersmith theatre, which is currently home to othellomacbeth, a condensed version of the Shakespeare tragedies Othello and Macbeth, joined one after the other with a transition appropriate to our modern day society. This is a bold production combining with HOME in Manchester, having played there last month before transferring to London.
To do such a bold move of putting these two well loved tragedies together means that director Jude Christian needs to really pack a punch with the staging, but sadly it was rather hit and miss. In particular at the beginning of Othello I believed that the staging was very static, and the actors didn’t seem sure whether they were addressing the audience or each other, making a confused opening. However as the play progressed, the spacing became clearer and dialogue flowed with more conviction, being exciting at points, and the Three Witches as such added a haunting and multi-layered depth to the second half.
