Othello - William Shakespeare
Directed by JI WON JEON
Scenic Design by Irena Hadzi Dordevic
Costume design by David Arevalo
Lighting Design by Brian Jordan
Scenic Design Concept
*Fear of Otherness, Fear of being othered.
Centered around the fragility of the human mind, insecurities accumulated over a long period of time, that society preys upon and festers until the suppressed individuals experience a breaking point that leads them to perform extreme acts of violence.
We raise a question: Who is the aggressor and who is the victim? The person who orchestrated everything or the one that broke down mentally and performed the violent act.
The play is divided between two distinctive locations Venice and Cyprus. Divide represents both the geographical and emotional isolation of the characters. We start in a large metropolitan city and we progress to an isolated island.
During the play, Othello is twice directly confronted by racial prejudices.
Time in Venice - Brabantio's racism becomes evident when he realizes that Othello married Desdemona
Time in Cyprus - Iago tells Othello that Desdemona might cheat on him because of the fact that it is not natural for her to love a black man.
We want to believe that we live in an advanced and modern equal society, but we realize that we had built a pretty outside shell - glass fragile structure of the modern world, on harsh grounds, racism and inequality that grew from our primordial fear of the other, the unknown, and of what is different than us. As we progress towards the end the primordial world starts showing up and we understand that we are not as advanced as we thought and that Othello is a victim of societal inability to expel racism.
