Steampunk Shakespeare

The other night I had the experience of going to one of our local theater company’s production of Othello. Now this version was a little different. That statement is almost a cliché now because almost every production of Shakespeare is “a little different.” People are always finding new or inventive ways of producing Shakespeare. They will set plays in the 1940’s, or during the Civil War, or the roaring 20’s, or with all Elvis Impersonators (okay I made that last one up, but I wouldn’t put it past some director out there).

This particular production of Othello was set underground beneath New York City and it was steampunk (I will assume you know what steampunk is, if not, look it up. That is a discussion for another day.) This production and the choices made, worked. Alas, not all the alternative settings for a Shakespeare production do work. It all comes down to how much thought the production team put into the concept. It is easy to come up with an offbeat idea for a production: “Let’s do Henry V on a moon base!” But if there is no underlying reason for Henry to be running around on the moon, then it detracts rather than adds to the story. (On the other hand this might give all new meaning to the line “Once more unto the breach dear friends!”) Once I saw an otherwise good production of The Taming of the Shrew that was set on the boardwalk in Atlantic City in the 1960’s. It had an elaborate and fun set that had all kinds of booths and games and diversions and beachwear . . . that had nothing to do with the show and was not incorporated into the show in any way. I was left puzzled. If you are going to go to that much trouble to construct an environment for the show, then the audience expectation is that it will be integral to the show.

Why this Othello works in an underground steampunk setting is that Othello is a dark play that fits in with the darkness necessitated by subterranean steampunk. There is a claustrophobic feel to the show that works well. Othello is deceived by Iago and driven to near madness in his unjustified jealousy. The caverns under New York are like the dark caverns of his mind as he slips deeper and deeper under Iago’s spell. Iago just sets the suggestions in motion, but it is really Othello’s own mind that does the damage to itself. Iago may hand him the shovel and tell him where to dig, but it is Othello that digs his own pit of destruction and that of his wife. It is a pit deeper than any subway tunnel. This is why it is hard to feel any sympathy for Othello. We may despise Iago, but we condemn Othello.

And perhaps, part of our discomfort with the character of Othello is because we worry a bit about how suggestible we all are. If a good man like Othello can be driven into jealous madness by a cunning set of lies, could something similar happen to the best of us? It is something to consider in today’s political climate when the left and the right are bombarding us in social media with memes of questionable reliability. We should seek the truth rather than allowing our emotions to drive us. A lesson that Othello learned the hard way.

(My novel Star Liner, is now available as an e-book through Amazon, or the other usual online sources. For those who like to turn physical pages, the paperback will be out soon).

star liner