National Theatre Live: Othello

Shakespeare's Othello as recorded from the stage of the National Theatre in London. Cyprus in this staging is a contemporary military base; the uniforms are from today's army, and there are portakabins, wire fencing and prefabricated rooms. Iago is a non-commissioned officer, Othello his superior. The subject is not jealousy but how gossip becomes a weapon inside a closed institution. That is exactly why the base is chosen: a place where everyone sees everyone, nobody can leave, and rank makes a statement true. The form is a theatre recording, not cinema. The cameras shoot from inside the auditorium, you hear the audience, and the actors are playing to a hall. The close-ups give you something you could never see in the theatre, and in exchange you lose the whole stage. Rory Kinnear's Iago became the most discussed element of this production: not charismatic, ordinary, almost tiresome. Adrian Lester plays Othello. Nicholas Hytner, then the artistic director of the National Theatre, directs. A young Jonathan Bailey plays Cassio. Who it is for: anyone who wants Shakespeare on stage and cannot get to London. Who it is not for: viewers expecting a screen adaptation; this is not a film but the record of a night at the theatre, and it behaves like one.