Omar Sangare

New York City, August 16, 2002

NEWSDAY
Theater

An Emphasis on Color in an Elegant "Othello"

By Michael Bracken

The stunning courtyard of the Vanderbilt Museum makes a dramatic setting for
the Arena Players Summer Shakespeare Festival's "Othello". With its sweeping
staircase and Spanish accent, it is elegant and exotic, just like the production it
now hosts.

Why exotic? Well, for starters, the Moor of Venice is now the Black of Angola, and
the actor playing him is currently, according to the production notes, the "only" black
Polish actor. Directed by Frederic DeFeis this "Othello" sees its title character as
a colonial naif from Portuguese Angola used by the establishment in Lisbon for its
own military ends. As played by Omar Sangare, Othello is elegant, but it's the
elegance of an outsider marked by the color of his skin.

Sangare is the soul of this production. One wonders which came first, the overall
concept or his casting. It doesn't matter: The two fit together like yin and yang. He is mesmerizing. His is a smiling Othello, whose amusement at those around him may be
a little patronizing but, at least initially, bears no malice. He gives Othello the arrogance
but also the insecurity of someone who thinks he knows everything.

Sangare's Othello is very much the general, commanding the stage as he would his
legions. His body language is precise and majestic. One doesn't always agree with his choices, but one admires the intensity with which he makes them. He speaks his lines
with an accent, which is sometimes at odds with Shakespeare's meter, but underscores
his implicit alienation as a dark-skinned foreigner in white society.

In the critical role of Iago, Stephen Wangner took a while to get comfortable at
the performance I saw, but by the end of the first act had settled into a convincing
and entertaining portrayal. Sangare's youth makes Carolyn Papadin seem a bit old
for Desdemona, and Christine Lobesso-Sullivan is a young Emilia, but they both give
excellent performances.

Director DeFeis' vision of Othello as a victim not only of his own pride but also of a racist society comes though loud and clear. I think this would have been equally true without
the wholesale alteration of Shakespeare's geography, which I found distracting. DeFeis
need not to take his concept so literally. His decision to change every reference to
"the Moor" to "the Black" is equally jarring, but more defensible. It drives home both
Othello's color and his dehumanization. Purists may object, but it accomplishes its goal.

If the sensual beauty of the courtyard of the Vanderbilt Museum on a summer night is
not enough to lure you to Centerport, let the charismatic intensity of Omar Sangare as
Othello do so. This is an intelligent interpretation of what is arguably Shakespeare's
most purely dramatic play.