FFWD Weekly
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| Theatre by By Lori Montgomery Othello and Desdemona If local audiences know Shaker Paleja, it’s probably thanks to the Bard. Between Mount Royal College’s Shakespeare in the Park and The Shakespeare Company, Paleja has seen his share of Elizabethan roles, and he loves them. But when he and I met for coffee recently on his 26th birthday, the actor had recently returned from two years away from familiar territory, in more ways than one. First, he spent a year in London, working for the Canadian High Commission. "My job basically was to sit there and tell British people about Canada," he says. "They came in and asked if it snowed in Banff in July, and things like that. That was my day job and it was great. I saw a lot of shows in the evenings, did acting classes here and there, and had a great time." Then he spent a year in Bombay, during which he starred in the Asian premiere of Yazima Reza’s Art (upcoming at Alberta Theatre Projects, as well). And while he admits his travels were fun, he says it’s nice to be home. "Ultimately, I had to come back," he says. "It’s nice to have a community in which you’re included. In London, I never felt I was part of the community, I was always an outsider, observing all the great things that were going on." Now that he’s back, he’s back on familiar ground with The Shakespeare Company’s staging of Othello, in which Paleja plays the title role. It’s a fairly traditional interpretation of the tale, he says, which plays best in a city like Calgary. "I think in a city like London or New York, you can afford to do a production of Othello where there’s a whole gay thing going on between Iago and Othello, and I think that could be acceptable there because people in those (audiences) know the story and have seen it done before," he points out. "In Calgary, I don’t think the show has been done here for seven years.... I don’t think most people know this story, and so we can’t afford to take that risk. And I don’t think it needs it, because the story itself, just the way it is, is interesting enough, if it’s done right." Doing it right, in his opinion, consists of playing up the passion that drives Othello to kill his wife when he erroneously believes her to have betrayed him. "I don’t see Othello as a 100 per cent rough guy," Paleja reflects. "It’s ironic, because Othello himself says, ‘Rude am I in speech, little blessed with that soft phrase of peace,’ and yet he has some of the most beautiful lines that Shakespeare has ever written, I think. His tragic flaw is that he ‘loves not wisely but too well.’ He’s a guy who feels a lot. He doesn’t necessarily think things through, but he feels a lot and acts on that." ***** Just when you’ve bought into Othello as a passionate lover who is driven to drastic action by a profound love, The Shakespeare Company hopes to stop you cold and fill you with doubt. Shakespeare’s classic is actually an adaptation that makes up one half of the production, followed by Paula Vogel’s Desdemona (a play about a handkerchief), in which the women from Othello get lives of their own. Director Luanne Morrow says that in a style typical of Vogel (How I Learned to Drive), a serious issue is given a comic setting. "What if Desdemona wasn’t this virginal, perfect woman who is mistaken to be an adultress?" Morrow asks. "What if she really is an adultress? Our Desdemona is not innocent at all. But it begs the question, does she still deserve to be treated this way?" Morrow isn’t concerned that the pairing of the two plays will undermine the classic. "We’re not slaves to the Shakespeare religion or anything," she says firmly. "We don’t see Shakespeare as sacred. We think that this is a really great way to take a wonderful play and perform it fully, and have people enjoy that, but then also have the opportunity to question it." Morrow, who directed Brenda Finley as Lear, acknowledges the reality that many modern audiences – particularly women – have entirely legitimate concerns with Shakespeare’s plays. "There’s a pattern for me here – the feminist deconstruction of Shakespeare," she laughs. She hasn’t consciously made that a priority, she says, "but I think that to be a modern Shakespeare company, you really have to be open to that, because it’s out there and people think that. So to deny it, you’re really just denying your audience’s intelligence. You have to go, ‘OK, if lots of people are going to think that, then let’s explore that.’ It’s more satisfying for the audience that way." |
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