Darling or Luvvie?

Just back from London and seeing Othello at The Globe. As usual, the company put on a fantastic production, with a slightly thicker Tim McInnerny playing Iago beautifully. For my money, the murder of Desdeamona was superb, moving and chilling, done on a pure white bed, centre stage. The wit and warmth of the script still came across strongly, even in this, an "everyone dies" tragedy.
It was an original costume production, which works really well at the globe, with the troupe of contemporary instrument musicians fitting in seamlessly.
The programme raised the interesing question of what time scale did the play take, with the arguments for "long time" and "short time" being equally compelling. Perhaps Shakespeare wasn't bothered, as long as the play "worked"

The reviews?

* * * * 'The play suits the Globe better than any I've seen' Time Out

'Desdemona (Zoe Tapper) is perfection - the best I have ever seen... Tim McInnerny has been brilliantly cast as Iago... Lorraine Burroughs is sensational. A good production of Othello should leave you shattered in a way that no other Shakespeare tragedy quite does. And this one did' The Observer

'Full of pace and energy... Eamonn Walker brings to Othello dignity, grace and a fine sense of the contradiction that leads Othello to lament "the pity of it" even as he prepares to murder Desdemona' The Guardian

'Walker cuts a charismatic and brooding figure. He charts the hero's descent into murderous jealousy with a vivid physicality... As Desdemona, Zoe Tapper is enchanting' The Independent

'Walker memorably captures the character’s initial decency and dignity, and the gradual unravelling of his mind' The Telegraph

'The seriously disturbed side of Tim McInnerny's portrayal is riveting, with his pushiness morphing, in soliloquies, into a manic fury' The Independent on Sunday

We have had quite a dose of Shakespeare recently, after seeing McKellen's Lear @ the RSC, and reading "one thousand acres" as part of el Grupo, we fought shy of seeing the complete works in 97 mins. However, I still fancy seeing Patrick Stewart play Macbeth this autumn, and I quite fancy ran by Kurosawa, director of one of my fave films recently listed in my Facebook entry