RICHARD McCABE in Discussion with the Open University Shakespeare
Society.
The talk was held on Sunday 2nd May 1999 at the Croft Study Centre.
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Q Having seen the performance, it seemed to me that you played Iago
as though he showed remorse - was this the case?
R I'm glad you picked that up - that's a difficult thing to get across.
Q Was it your own improvisation?
R No, it's something that we deliberately set out to achieve in
rehearsal. The idea of a remorseful Iago was, we thought, rather interesting - someone who
had a prick of conscience left. It's difficult because Iago isn't Richard III. You don't
come on and say "Ahha, I'm going to show you what I'm going to do and then do
it" - and then come back and say "Well, wasn't I clever?" He (Iago) doesn't
really have any idea at the beginning of the play how things are going to evolve and,
equally, you can't come on as Mephistopheles, i.e. stock villain - otherwise there's no
interest. I think, for the audience if you're just a puppet master manipulating all these
characters, you think, "Well, OK, I'm in control". Whereas if Iago is not aware
how things are going to unfold, it creates far more dramatic tension and he's often
surprised by how well things go. So I wanted to make him more human I suppose, rather than
a two-dimensional stock villain, because people always think of Iago in that way. He is
one of the great Shakespearean villains - but it doesn't mean you necessarily have to play
him as such.
Most people in the play refer to him as "honest Iago", "good old
Iago", "let's go to Uncle Iago with our problems". So it's important that
everybody else thinks of him as a decent honest man and so he has a public face with
everybody else and he reacts to different people in different ways. But privately, of
course, he is a seething mass of envy and jealousy, completely eaten up with it. So this
conscience was an idea. It's really hard to find moments to put it in. There was a very
obvious one - to which I think you are referring - which was when I was comforting
Desdemona and she gave me a peck on the cheek. Then she goes to leave and Amelia gives me
a peck - and it's like "Oh my God”, for a moment there he could crack "What
have I done, what's going on here?" And just as he's thinking that, Roderiguez comes
in with a knife in his throat and he's back in villain mode again, as he should be. Yes, I
thought it was more interesting to develop that aspect of him. I daresay during the course
of a run, because performances develop as the run goes on, we'll focus that a little bit
more because it is a difficult thing to pull out - but it's far more dramatically
interesting if he does have that and maybe we'll find somewhere else to introduce that
element. But I'm glad you picked up on it because often as an actor in rehearsals you can
work like crazy to create an effect which when the audience during the performance, see it
and you say "Did you pick up that?" and they say "No" you are annoyed
because it went completely over their heads.
Equally, in this production the homoerotic idea we were aware of. You cannot but be aware
that when you're that close to another man and down on your knees then there's an element
of that if you want to read that into it. But we did not deliberately rehearse that as
such. People read into it what they want to - but that's fine. I think it makes it richer
and fuller. It's an odd process that kind of thing, but I know the conscience in
particular is a difficult thing to put in and pull off - and we're still refining it in
the 1999 production.
Q What period is Othello set in?
R Set in 1910 Edwardian - a complacent, smug, self-satisfied time, just
before the world went wrong - before the First World War, when things changed. We played
around with different periods. Actually, we weren't sure where to set it. There was an
idea of the 1860s at one point and we finally settled on 1910. We're not unique. If you
look at the National's production last year or Trevor [Nunn]'s at The Other Place some
years back, we're all within 30 years of that date, either forward or back. It seems to be
a good time to set this play in because it gives you that stiff, upright, ramrod-back
military world: stiff collar and officers' mess. Because the majority of the play is set
in a military camp you have to create a world that is immediately identifiable as such.
Equally, with the character of Othello, he is an outsider, a black man in a white society
and he made a fatal mistake. As the generals would say, "You can fight our battles
for us - but don't take our women". It's a deeply racist society, so to put it into a
modern context, i.e. have a modern dress production, I don't think that would work -
because we live in such a multicultural society today that the idea of the exotic black
outsider wouldn't ring so true. Equally, if you set it too far in the distant past, you
don't get moments of connection any more with the audience, so that Edwardian period is
strong visually - you get a strong visual sense of costumes of that period. It makes a
very bold statement - and it's far enough away for us still to think of the black man as
the outsider in white society.
Q Bath scene seems to work well?
R Bath scene - a turning point in the play. "Villain be sure thou
prov'st my love a whore". So we wanted a big gesture really - and somebody very
casually mentioned about being dunked in water on day 1 in rehearsal ... great idea!
Practically, we decided on a tin bath so he could be half drowned. He is begging me not to
go - so that's the psychological turn.
Q Is Othello stupid?
R No, he’s not stupid at all. Shakespeare plots it beautifully -
acknowledging that one suffers from sexual jealousy. If we’re honest, of course, we
all do and it’s little remarks like that which start it off. It's so innocent and the
way Shakespeare puts it you cannot but react to it. Othello resists his jealousy. He
doesn't want to believe Desdemona's wrongdoing.
Q Is it Iago's jealousy that motivates everything - job, money, sex?
R Jealousy and envy.
Q Is that in his nature - was he born like that?
R No, it's a combination of factors. He gets on well with people. I
think its bitterness at not being where he should be at this time in his life.
If you're playing Iago, you have to think of yourself as hero, not villain - otherwise you
would hate yourself. Iago does hate himself, deeply, but you can't play it that way,
otherwise it would be a really negative performance, but you show it now and then.
"The Lieutenant must be saved". "No, he must die."
Q Does Amelia give the handkerchief or does he take it?
R She uses it as a bargaining tool in our production. Locked in a
loveless marriage, she uses it and so Iago snatches it from her and he kisses her.
Iago is not in love with Amelia in this production because of his jealousy he is convinced
that she has been having an affair. Act 4 Sc 3: "I think this be the husband's
fault." This is Amelia's whole story of her relationship with Iago. Relationship is
important to Iago he interprets things with jealousy: - when leaving the shoreline in Act
2. Sc1. Cassio offers an arm to Amelia and Iago sees this. Iago flicks Amelia with the
towel he has been drying his hair with; so he notices everything. Iago: "I do fear
Cassio with my night-cap too." i.e. not only is Cassio after Desdemona, but he's
after Amelia, my wife, too.
Characters always speak truth in soliloquy and his (Iago's) jealousy is genuinely eating
him up.
Q You talk of the performance. How does this happen? Is it done in
rehearsal?
R I always find it really bizarre. We have a particularly long rehearsal
time at the RSC, of about 6 weeks but you need it to explore the text. You have 6 weeks in
the rehearsal room and you're used to the rehearsal room and props and then you come into
tec. week. You begin on Monday and by Thursday or Friday you've got an audience. So you
have to get used to the stage, which is on a rake, that effects things. You've got to get
used to being in a costume you've never worn before and shoes which alter the way you
move. You're
under the lights, which are incredibly hot and you're sweating. You've got to get used to
entrances, exits, the real props and the technical aspects of performing. In a rehearsal
room you can do 4 verse lines on a single breath. You get into the theatre and it becomes
3 lines because you're giving out more energy. So you have to alter all your breathing and
you're doing this while everyone around you is rushing getting all the technical aspects
right.
So 6 weeks and then 3 days.
During the first performance you're very rarely aware of the audience because you 're just
terrified. In Othello there were lots of laughs I wasn't aware of. As a performer you get
to know where they are and develop them. After a couple of weeks of performance you start
to explore the text in performance because you feel more comfortable with everything.
Through the whole process of performing - moments become more defined than they did in
rehearsal. Talking it through between actors over 6 months this can have an effect on the
show.
Q Does audience feed back differ greatly?
R Yes, enormously.
Q How long does it take to learn your lines?
R 6 weeks! You learn them in rehearsal otherwise you learn them parrot
fashion without knowing why you're saying them. You learn a line by knowing why you're
saying it and by putting it into context, then they go in to your head. I had learnt most
of it by the 5th week. The murder scene was the hardest to learn, because there are lots
of one liners. It requires everyone working together. If someone drops a line or even a
word, that maybe a cue for the other actors to come on stage and so can make things very
difficult.
Q Do you find Shakespeare easy to learn?
R Yes, iambic pentameter helps. Shakespeare makes it easy for you. In a
way he gives you too much in any one line and you could end up emphasising every word
because they're all relevant. You have to emphasise what's relevant for the way you are
playing the character. Clarity is the most important thing i.e. telling the story clearly.
Investigating the text.
Q People say Desdemona’s death goes on too long?
R Well yes, it takes along time to die.
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