Basil Rathbone: Othello

A tragedy by William Shakespeare. Opened at the Royal Court Theatre, London, April 21, 1921. Closed on June 18, 1921, after 68 performances. Producer and Director, J. B. Fagan; General Manager, A.W. Chappell; Stage Manager, George Desmond; Assistant Stage Manager, John Collins; Costume Designer, Theodore Komisarjevsky; Costumes for Miss Titheradge and Miss Grey, Madame Robert Brochet; Other costumes, B. J. Simmons & Co. Ltd. and Tom Heslewood; Wigs, Clarkson; Scenery construction, H. E. Hutton; Scenery painter, R. D'Amar; Lighting and set designer, J. B. Fagan; Lighting carried out by Charles Hammond; Electric lighting by Alfred Walters; Music under the direction of J. H. Squire; Fights arranged by Felix Grave.

The play opens on a street in Venice. Here we are introduced to Iago, a soldier, and Roderigo, a rich man who is in love with Desdemona, daughter of a senator in Venice. Iago and Roderigo are complaining about Othello, a Moor and general of the Venetian army. Both of them hate Othello—Roderigo because Othello has secretly married Desdemona, and Iago because he believes Othello passed him over for a promotion in favor of a young, inexperienced soldier named Cassio. Iago begins plotting vengeance against Othello.

Iago and Roderigo hasten to inform Brabantio, the girl's father, of her elopement with Othello. Brabantio is horrified, but before he can confront Othello, he is summoned to an urgent meeting of the Senate regarding the imminent threat of a Turkish invasion fleet on the Venetian-held island of Cyprus. Othello is already at the council because he has been put in command of the forces to repel the Turks.

Brabantio interrupts the meeting to accuse Othello of winning Desdemona by witchcraft. Defending himself, Othello tells how he won her love by telling her of his great adventures. Desdemona agrees and swears that she married Othello for love.

Because of the Turkish threat, Othello departs immediately for Cyprus to defend the island against the Turks. He leaves Desdemona behind with Iago, promising that she shall come to his camp as soon as it is safely established on the island of Cyprus.

No sooner has Othello landed than he learns that a tempest dispersed the Turkish fleet and thus the island is free from any immediate threat of an attack. When Othello is reunited with Desdemona on the island, he announces that there will be feasting and gaiety that evening to celebrate Cyprus’s safety from the Turks. Iago plans to use young Cassio to arouse Othello's jealousy, but first he will lower Cassio in the esteem of his general.

That night Othello puts Cassio in charge of preventing the soldiers from drinking in excess so that no brawl might take place. The wicked Iago leads the young soldier to drink a little bit too freely, under the pretense of honoring their general. During the feast Iago manages to involve Cassio in a quarrel with Roderigo. In an attempt to break up the scuffle, the governor of Cyprus is wounded. A riot ensues and Iago has the alarm bell rung. When Othello comes upon the scene he orders Cassio deprived of his commission in the army.

The next day, Iago urges Cassio to ask Desdemona to intercede for him as Othello could not refuse her anything. Cassio, unsuspicious of what Iago is attempting, takes his advice and pleads with Desdemona to have him reinstated. Desdemona reassures him that she will speak to Othello on his behalf.

Hastening to Othello, Iago hints that there is an affair of some sort between Desdemona and Cassio. The Moor will not believe his wife is false to him, and yet is much hurt when she urges him to restore Cassio to his rank of chief lieutenant.

Still doubting, Othello demands proof that his wife is unfaithful. Iago asks Othello if Desdemona owns a handkerchief embroidered in strawberries. Othello answers in the affirmative, adding that he himself gave her such a handkerchief; it was his first gift to the woman he loved. Iago then explains to the unhappy husband that he has seen this very strawberry-spotted handkerchief in the possession of Cassio. (Actually, Iago's wife Emilia found the handkerchief that Desdemona had dropped and passed it to Iago, who planted it in Cassio’s room as “evidence” of Cassio’s affair with Desdemona.) Iago suggests that Desdemona has given Cassio the handkerchief. Furious, Othello threatens to kill Cassio.

Just to be certain, Othello asks Desdemona for her handkerchief and when she cannot not find it, Othello's worst suspicions are confirmed. With angry words he bursts from the room in a jealous rage. Othello orders Iago to kill Cassio and plans to kill Desdemona himself. When wife and husband meet again he accuses the woman more plainly of unfaithfulness. Surprised and terrified at the change that has come over her once loving husband, Desdemona retires weeping to her room.

Later, as Desdemona sleeps, Othello enters, and going over to her, kisses her forehead. Awakening, Desdemona raises herself on her arm and with tears in her eyes tries to clear herself of the accusations he has brought against her. But he refuses to listen to her pleadings and smothers her with a pillow.

Emilia, wife of Iago, enters and is horrified by the sight of Desdemona's body. Othello tells Emilia that he killed Desdemona for her infidelity, citing the handkerchief as proof. Emilia defends Desdemona’s innocence, and says that Iago lied. She explains how Desdemona's handkerchief came into Cassio's possession. Reacting to his wife's accusations, Iago stabs and kills Emilia. Othello realizes that Iago is behind the tragedy and tries to kill him.

Just at this moment Cassio is brought into the house wounded and bleeding, as Iago had sent Roderigo to assassinate him. The attempt, however, was not successful and Cassio is not mortally wounded. Letters are revealed that make the treachery of Iago and the innocence of Cassio clear beyond a doubt. This blow is too much for the Moor, who, realizing the limits to which his blind passion has carried him, stabs himself and dies at the feet of his dead wife.

The story ends with Cassio becoming governor of Cyprus and sentencing Iago to a lingering torture.

(The plot summary above is embellished with drawings from The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, May 21, 1921.)

TRAGEDIAN TEARLE "ARRIVES."

Godfrey Tearle's Othello at the Court was better than I expected—and I expected a lot. I knew that he is no tyro in Shakespearian art. I had seen his father Osmond and his uncle Edmund many a time, and I was aware of Godfrey's early and arduous training in their Shakespearian traditions. His recent successes in London had familiarised me with his strong personality and histrionic accomplishments. Yet his Othello surprised me. It was first and foremost an elocutionary triumph. Only Forbes-Robertson spoke the poetry of the part more beautifully. Forbes-Robertson in other respects was not a great Othello; and Godfrey Tearle, in some of those respects—notably the fire and agony of the character—was as good as any Othello I have seen, with the single exception of Grasso's.

And I have seen a good many Othellos—even H. J. Nettlefold's!

Therefore, if you are a conscientious playgoer, you must go to the Court to see this splendid embodiment of the noble Moor. Next in importance in Fagan's fine revival of the tragedy is Basil Rathbone's Iago. It is a good Iago—the right age (twenty-eight), but a shade modern and meticulous. Rathbone, like Tearle, speaks the poetry musically. Madge Titheradge's Desdemona slightly disappointed me. I liked her tenderness and sweetness, but her tone is not Shakespearian. Frank Cellier was immense in Cassio's "drunk" scene, but he is a pocket Cassio to look at. The Emilia of Mary Grey didn't get there at all. There is an actress named Ethel Griffies who can make you jump out of your seat as Emilia.

Fagan's production of "Othello" achieves wonders on his tiny stage. It is artistic, full of colour, and ingenious in obtaining effects of height and space. In this last respect the Council Chamber scene is something to marvel at. Once again, bravo, Fagan!

—The Sporting Times, April 30, 1921

Othello premiered at the Royal Court Theatre during William Shakespeare's birthday week. (Mr. Shakespeare would have been 357 years old in 1921.) Opening night was attended by a number of celebrities, including Lloyd George, Lord Balfour, Anthony Eden and Lady Colefax.

As Rathbone recalled, the play seemed to be going well, but then he developed an uncontrollable case of the hiccups during the second half of the performance. Though afraid that the audience would laugh at him, Rathbone made his entrance onstage and hiccupped through a scene with Desdemona. He wrote, "No laughs ... warm applause greeted my exit. On the following morning I received excellent reviews from the press. One leading London newspaper picked out, in particular, the scene with Desdemona I have just mentioned. For this scene I received special praise for my brilliant conception in playing Iago, drunk!" (In and Out of Character, p. 47)

In an interview, Rathbone stated that playing Iago was a great experience. He added, "We can all understand Iago’s motives in ‘Othello,’ even though we loathe him, because he appeals to the intelligence." (“He Resents Being Typed,” Silver Screen, July 1936)

The character of Othello was played by Godfrey Tearle, son of acclaimed Shakespearean actor/manager Osmond Tearle. Basil Rathbone wrote that Godfrey Tearle was the best Othello that he had ever seen.

Six members of the Othello cast had appeared with Basil Rathbone in King Henry IV, Part II, February 17 to April 16, 1921: Frank Cellier, Alfred Clark, C. Thomas, Eugene Leahy, John Collins, and Mary Grey (a.k.a. Mrs. J. B. Fagan).

Most critics praised Rathbone's performance as Iago. A few, however, felt that Rathbone wasn't convincing as a villain. (Ironic, since Rathbone was later typecast as a villain!)

"I did not think Mr. Basil Rathbone altogether successful in rendering plausible to us so much cold-blooded villainy. Much as I admired the lightness and precision of his playing, I began to doubt before the end whether he had started with any very clear conception of the character." —Truth, April 27, 1921

"Mr. Rathbone is always making the audience laugh with the pungency of Iago’s wit; as he strolls through the play with his lithe, graceful movements, you miss the cigarette between his fingers. He is critical, peevish, spiteful—anything you like, but not dangerous. Gradually the conviction gains on you that here is an Iago who would hamstring no Lieutenants, bring about no murders. ... Rathbone gives us a delicate study, a cleverly executed study, but not for a moment the Colossus needed to sustain this mighty tragedy." —D. L. M., The Nation and the Athenaeum, May 7, 1921

While some critics were not convinced of Iago's villainy, Rathbone's girlfriend at the time, a woman he called Kitten, found his performance frightening. He recalled that she said, "How can you play a part like that, and not be something like it yourself? ... You frighten me." (In and Out of Character, p. 47)

Other critics, such as this one for The Scotsman, felt that Rathbone hit the right note with his interpretation of Iago:

"Mr. Basil Rathbone realized the utter, almost detached, scoundrelism of Iago, his deliberate villainy, be he perhaps made the character too brutal and not intellectual enough. But that is a refinement of criticism which could only be brought against a convincing performance." —The Scotsman, April 22, 1921

FINE ACTING IN THE COURT THEATRE REVIVAL

One sometimes wishes that Shakespeare had written more about ordinary people, and less about Kings; and it is perhaps half the secret of the popularity of "Othello" that it is the domestic tragedy of simple, comparatively ordinary people, people "of like passions" with ourselves and caught in the toils of a particular passion which we see daily at work. The play probes the human sympathies as none other of the tragedies can do. Given an Iago, we feel that it might have happened to us.

With an actor like Mr. Godfrey Tearle in the part of the Moor, the illusion becomes terribly real. Last night at The Court he gave a great performance. His range of expression was remarkable. He was exactly the rude and powerful soldier, and, if anything, as the simple lover of the opening scenes he was too smooth and lovable to be the cruel and violent creature of the later ones. the crescendo of jealousy was made extraordinarily real, so real that its steepness was forgotten. All through he lived the part to an unusual degree, and his despairing cry to the the dead Desdemona was unforgettably moving. If the performance had a blemish, it was that he buried the poetry of one or two passages in a too rapid emotional delivery, though there were many which he spoke very beautifully, notably the speech in the Council chamber and the "Farewell the tranquil mind."

Mr. Basil Rathbone's slim and subtle Iago made an excellent contrast. This was an extremely clever and thorough piece of acting, obviously the result of much thought and hard work. He did look twenty-eight, and he did make us believe in his deliberate wickedness; and if one scarcely felt that so impressive a person as Mr. Tearle's Othello would have been deceived by it, that was not his fault. He did the difficult soliloquies very easily and well, and it was a pity that one of them was spoiled by a huge noise "off." The passages between these two in the second act were magnificent.

Miss Madge Titheradge scarcely reached the same level, but Desdemona has fewer opportunities. She was a very gentle, quiet, and (except for the wig) beautiful Desdemona, and suggested the naive bewilderment of the final scenes with touching effect; but even her best moments suffered from a certain immobility of expression.

Mr. Frank Cellier's Cassio was a deservedly popular performance, especially (I am afraid) the drunken scene, done with much delicacy. Mr. Eric Cowley was not my idea of Roderigo, being too much of a clown to have dreamed of aspiring to the favours of a Desdemona.

As to the production, one might have heard a little more poetry; there were some taking pieces of staging, particularly, perhaps, the simple hangings of the council Chamber; but the lighting was often bad, especially in the Seaport scene, even supposing it had proceeded according to plan; what with the recalcitrant stairs, the green-cheese moonlight, the lamp which refused to light, charm the lamplighter never so wisely, the heavy shadow of the lamp-post on the sky, and other imperfections, the lighting department must look to't. Nobody minded, but there were so many little hitches that if the acting had been of a less high order serious havoc might have been caused. Little mechanical hitches can make the greatest actors look silly, and that is a shame.

But the production deserves and, I hope, will have, a great success.

A. P. H.

—The Westminster Gazette, April 22, 1921

Edwin Radford, with The Nottingham Journal, criticized producer J. B. Fagan for perverting Shakespeare's play. Radford wrote, "He gives us in Mr. Godfrey Tearle and Mr. Basil Rathbone an Othello and Iago who set us wondering which is the younger and the more handsome. Othello became a fine-featured, olive-complexioned, irresistibly attractive young Southerner, not a day older than thirty. Instead of Desdemona being attracted by pity, we could hardly imagine her doing otherwise than falling in love with this young god, in the natural way that a young maid falls in love with a young man. Again, with Mr. Rathbone's beautiful young Iago, 'villainous thoughts' could only be explained in one so youthful and so fair by a theory of degeneration. This state of things makes half the play meaningless." (Nottingham Journal, May 2, 1921)

The issue was Rathbone's age. Mr. Radford and a few other critics felt that Iago should be played by an older actor, pointing out that Shakespeare described Iago as a "bad old soldier." Fagan countered this criticism by stating that in Shakespeare's Othello, "Iago describes himself in the first scene as being 28, and though he often tells lies, in this instance it would be to his interest to exaggerate his age." (The Pall Mall Gazette, April 25, 1921)

Many critics were disappointed in Madge Titheradge's performance as Desdemona. On June 2 she was replaced by Moyna Macgill, whose performance pleased the critics.

"Miss Macgill is very intelligent. She subdued herself to Desdemona's rather tiresome patience with a rather too visible skill; but when real acting was needed in the dreadful moment after Othello's last worst outburst, just before the bedchamber scene, she was wonderfully moving in her dazed and bewildered innocence. She has, too, a grace denied to Mr. Basil Rathbone, whose handsome Iago was on far too intimate terms with the audience. Miss Macgill plays into the play, not out at the playhouse. She suggested a girl's mad infatuation throughout the early scenes by the simple and entirely successful trick of never taking her eyes off Othello if she could possibly help it, and even then only for the shortest possible time. She is, in short, an artist." —The Westminster Gazette, June 2, 1921

In 1925, Macgill became the mother of Angela Lansbury, who later acted with Basil Rathbone in the 1956 film The Court Jester. Moyna Macgill also appeared in Frenchman's Creek (1944) with Basil Rathbone; she played Lady Godolfin.

"OTHELLO" at the COURT THEATRE

Many people consider that Othello is the best acting play that Shakespeare ever wrote, and nobody can doubt that the play contains some of his noblest poetry. It is certainly the only play, except perhaps The Tempest, in which unity of theme is observed, and here the theme is so terrible, the unity so relentless, that we occasionally long to have back some of the usual Shakespearean discursiveness at which we have probably so often grumbled.

Mr. Fagan's production of the play is on the whole a very satisfactory one. There are two intervals only, and though the First and Third Acts, as he has arranged them, each contain a number of scenes, the stage management is admirably competent, and one fades in as quickly as the other fades out. even my rabid feelings about waits were soothed by such excellent promptitude. All the scenes were quite pleasing; one in which the Doge sits in Council in the Sagittary is really beautiful. Pink-purple curtains fall in heavy folds, making the background of the stage. On a tall dais, about eight steps high, sits the Doge in his gold brocade gown and cap; behind him falls from his high canopy a broad panel of cloth of gold. this forms a very fine and dignified setting for what is certainly one of the most admirably written scenes in Shakespeare. Mr. Godfrey Tearle is a thoroughly competent actor, and made the Moor most attractive, as a simple, honest, and almost childlike but at the same time resolute man of action. I like the way in which Mr. Fagan shifts his company about. Mr. Alfred Clark, who played Falstaff in Henry IV, was acting the small part of Brabantio, and acting it exceedingly well. Mr. Basil Rathbone was an admirable Iago. This sort of part seems to me to suit him better than the "juvenile lead," when he is a little inclined to conform to the ideals of the cinema hero. Iago is an almost impossible character to portray; it is very difficult for an actor to make his motives appear sufficient. Another good piece of casting was that of Miss Mary Grey as Emilia. She was excellent as the slightly vulgar, slightly coarse-minded but affectionate, loud-mouthed woman. Unfortunately, her costumes and those of Miss Madge Titheradge as Desdemona are not a success. Mr. Tom Heslewood was responsible for the rest of the clothes, and he is an expert on Venetian costume of the period chosen, but on the programme we are told that Mr. Commisarjevsky was responsible for Desdemona's and Emilia's dresses. In any case, somebody made a hash of it. Miss Madge Titherage was handicapped by a most absurd voluminous tow wig, making her look like a caricature of a stage ingenue. While the other two women—Bianca and the waiting woman—were in well cut, coherent Venetian dresses, she and Emilia wore a series of inchoate dressing gowns of colours which went very ill with the scenery. Whether the fault was Mr. Commisarjevsky's or whether it was a case of "leading lady" again, it is, of course, impossible to determine. Mr. Eric Cowley acted pleasantly as Roderigo, a part obviously written for Mr. Miles Malleson. Miss Gwendolen Evans as the demi-mondaine Bianca is quite attractive to look at, but is unfortunately, exceedingly correct in her behaviour. we wish she would go to her namesake Miss Edith Evans to learn how to play a Venetian courtesan.

Tarn.

—The Spectator, May 7, 1921

"Mr. Basil Rathbone's Iago is very intelligent, for he avoids all the pitfalls of the part, which so readily lends itself to transpontine villainy." —The Graphic, April 30, 1921

"Mr. Basil Rathbone's Iago was also a notable performance. ... The spite and devilish ingenuity of the character were clearly brought out. ... The effect of the actor's performance became more intense as it proceeded. It was never a great Iago, but it was always vivid and convincing, with the subtle Italianate touch." —The Saturday Review, April 30, 1921

"Mr. Basil Rathbone's conception of Iago is most skilfully worked out, but he gives us the impression that he failed to act up to his own intentions. He could not quite attain the sinister note, but remains malicious, and at times a most agreeable fellow. Nevertheless, it was a clever, subtle impersonation, and heightens Mr. Rathbone's reputation." —The Era, April 27, 1921

"Basil Rathbone, an artiste who is surely rising to the highest rank in the profession, gave a wonderfully fine reading of Iago, full of insight and intellectual power, and lacking only, perhaps, in the suggestion of diablerie in the villain's composition." —Western Mail, April 23, 1921