Everyman presents William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello at the Collab Cove of the SOFA Design Institute at the Proscenium, Rockwell Center. Everyman is Carl Cariño’s theater company, and when it stages a Shakespeare work, it has been known to abridge the material, strip down the text to a purposeful essence, use movement and mime to advance the storytelling, and strive to keep the running time to a maximum of two hours. For Carl, this is to help make the work more accessible and relevant to the audience.

In the case of Othello, the limited space of the Collab Cove has transformed the work into a more immersive experience, and we feel we’re right in the middle of the action, like flies on a wall, or among the role players who form part of the company. We don’t have lines, but we are in on the action as intimate observers. It’s a fresh perspective on experiencing dramatic play.

By eliminating several passages, lines, and scenes, the tragedy has been stripped of much of the context related to race or religion. The notion of Othello as an ‘outsider’ has been diluted. But what we have left is still crystal clear in terms of dramatic interplay. It’s now squarely about love and jealousy, about the immaturity and insecurities of men in power. It’s about manipulation and the scheming that men do, and how women are used as instruments or made victims of these machinations.

Inadvertently, though, this abridging also results in this version being very much Iago’s play. He’s much more clearly the most interesting character, the insidious puppet-master - manipulating Rodrigo, Emilia, Cassio, and even Othello. He sets in motion several actions, starting with pushing Desdemona’s father to confront his own daughter and the Moor.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote poems such as "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan," and is just as well known for his literary criticism. On Iago, Coleridge wrote of ‘motive-hunting of a motiveless malignity’ - referring to the inherent evil that is personified in Iago. For Coleridge, the being passed over for promotion, the feelings of jealousy and resentment towards Othello and Cassio, are all just rationalizations on the part of Iago, and that he just enjoyed being evil. Iago was highly intelligent, and would thus be creative in how to improvise and satisfy this urge to do bad.

It’s this Iago that the present production brings to the foreground, and whether it’s Tarek El Tayech or Dean Daniel Rosen essaying the role, this is effectively achieved. Miguel Vasquez is a solid presence as Othello and does a wonderful job in Desdemona’s death scene. On the night I watched, Rachel Coates played Desdemona, and I appreciated how she eschewed the traditional demure portrayal of Desdemona to create a more spirited and mercurial character. As Emilia, Issa Litton provided an interesting arc, from doe-eyed, adoring wife to Iago, to one who awakens to his villainy and suffers for it. As a result, she adds much more ‘meat’ to this character and her poignant speeches about men.

Do seek out social media posts that include the schedule of this production and information on how to obtain tickets. It’s always good to support the small indie theater companies and help keep this side of the theater spectrum alive. There’s great quality here, and they deserve an audience.