Great Works I: Remixing Memory

I went to see the performance of Othello at Queens Theatre on Friday, May 1^st. A major decision they made for this production of Othello was that female actors did all of the acting. They also changed the play to make the male characters into females. For instance, instead of Othello being Desdemona’s husband, the female playing him was instead her wife. At first this was a little odd to me because it was hard to keep track of who was a male character in the book, and who was a female. Once I got used to it, it was as if I did not even notice. I thought this was a strong decision because it was different from the norm of Shakespeare’s time. Back then, all acting would be done by male actors, even female characters. The fact that all women played the characters at this performance of Othello shows how much females have come and how much they have been able to evolve. Along with this, the actors did a great job performing the male roles. They were very strong, confident, and loud. Even though there was no background set, I was able to picture it in my head because of the acting done. In my opinion, this was an accurate and good performance of how I believe the play would have looked. The fact that all of the characters were females did not take away from the performance at all because they played such strong roles. It shows now that women can do anything, which was less heard of in Shakespeare’s time period. I believe this performance of Othello has proven that women have come a long way since then and a gender should not be such an important aspect of a human being. The women actors did just as great a job as I feel men would be able to do. I believe the performance at Queens Theatre was a great performance of Othello and very similar to how I would imagine it while reading the play.