There’s much to admire in Melbourne Shakespeare Company’s production of Othello, currently playing at fortyfivedownstairs.
At the outset, Callum Dale’s set design appears minimal, layered steps suggesting something of a comitium (a public meeting space). Yet it’s this open space, that one of the most famous stories of treachery, lies and jealousy, unfolds.
However, the genius in Callum’s design lies behind the scenes, literally. Behind the steps hang seemingly opaque curtains that the audience are able to peer through when Sidney Younger’s lighting design shines the right way. We look behind walls into hallways and bedrooms at an Othello we might not ordinarily consider if we were to begin at Act 1 Scene 1 as Shakespeare wrote.
By those eventual opening lines, despite what he may proclaim, Othello (Christopher Kirby) is a General damaged and haunted by the wars he’s fought. These silent scenes where we glimpse the toll exacted on Othello are compelling embellishments to the story and go some way towards explaining just how someone so seemingly balanced and devoted to his wife could be so easily manipulated and led to ruin.
What might ordinarily be performed by ten actors is performed here by just five. There’s some doubling of characters, but it’s a focused, taut story Director Tanya Gerstle tells with her cast.
Matthew Furlani was terrific, first as Cassio (Othello’s loyal lieutenant), later as Lodovico (Desdemona’s cousin). Cassio’s drunken histrionics were entertaining, to be sure, but it’s in Cassio’s later scenes – desperate and being buffeted by forces and machinations he cannot understand – where Furlani’s performance really shone.
Lucy Ansell played both Emilia (Iago’s wife & Desdemona’s maidservant) and Bianca (Cassio’s lover) in excellent fashion. Emilia’s final speech in righteous defence of Desdemona was one of the most gripping of the play and beautifully performed.
Tanya Schneider gave a wonderful performance as Desdemona (Othello’s wife), drawing the audience in, making her later scenes of hurt and despair all the more potent and tragic.
For much of the play, one of the words heard most about and around Iago, is “Honest”. In many ways, the Iago that Dushan Philips presents (mostly only to the audience) is exactly that: honest. His hatred for Othello is partly depicted as being born of jealousy, but there’s more going on. War has scarred them both, yet left Othello in possession of a moral compass Iago is determined to smash. Can a performance be gloriously despicable? This one certainly was.
Christopher Kirby was thrilling to watch in the lead role, showing us an Othello existing under the terrible weight of memory and the cost of war. Both physically, and in he how he wielded the language, Kirby gave an enthralling performance that was – apart from Othello’s brutal penultimate scene with Desdemona – impossible to look away from from
This production of Othello is one exquisitely told and shouldn’t be missed.
OTHELLO
fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Performance: Friday 12 September 2025
Season: 12 – 28 September 2025
Bookings: www.fortyfivedownstairs.com
For more information, visit: www.melbourneshakespeare.com for details.
Images: Melbourne Shakespeare Company’s production of Othello – photos by Nick Robertson (@nickmickpics)
Review: June Collins