Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 17: Natrang’s Sunday Theatre today witnessed William Shakespeare’s globally acclaimed play ‘Othello’ adapted by Rohit Verma- a post graduate in dramatics from University of Mumbai, through pre-rehearsed reading by senior and accomplished actors of Natrang.
Vikrant Sharma and Anil Tickoo both accomplished actors of Natrang kept the audience spellbound while enlivening the characters of Othello and Lago respectively through their mastery over voice modulation and hold over the understanding of characters and situations. They were supported by Gauri Thakur as Desdemona and Vrinda Sharma as Emilia. Aishwarya Sathe acted as narrator and presenter of the play. The entire experiment was supervised by Balwant Thakur.
To the 16th-century Venice and Cyprus where Othello the Moor, a noble black general in the Venetian army, has secretly married a beautiful white woman called Desdemona, the daughter of a prominent senator, Brabantio. When he finds out, he is outraged, and promptly disowns her.
Othello’s ensign, Lago, harbours a secret jealousy and resentment towards the Moor, partly because another soldier, lieutenant Cassio, has been promoted ahead of him, and also because he suspects that Othello has had an affair with his wife.
Intent on revenge, Lago hatches a devious plan to plant suspicions in Othello’s mind that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him with Cassio. He orchestrates a street fight, for which Cassio is wrongly blamed, and is then dismissed, from his post by Othello. Desdemona takes up Cassio’s case with her husband, which only further inflames his suspicions that the pair are lovers.
In the meantime, Lago manages to procure a treasured handkerchief from Desdemona that was given to her by Othello. He plants it on Cassio so that Othello sees it and then concludes that it is proof of their affair. Maddened by jealousy, he orders Lago to murder Cassio, and then he strangles Desdemona. Immediately afterwards her innocence is revealed and Lago’s treachery exposed, in a fit of grief and remorse Othello kills himself.
The lights were executed by Shivam Singh and sound was operated by Brijesh Avtar Sharma.