This article initially appeared in vulture’s theater Newsletter Stage Whisperer.
Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Othello was ravaged by Critics Last Week, and Rightly SO, but nobody seamed to notice the best part of the which show – probably becase it is happy all the actors left the stage. Critics Specific (and Rightly) Called Out Director Kenny Leon for Setting This New Othello in “The Near Future” for SEEMINGLY NO REASON. “What this is meant to teach us about the rules of this obstage universe, who Can Say?” Writes Vulture’s Sara Holdren. But Despite the Ridiculousness of this Attempted ESP, there is one legitimi forward-thinking moment. UPON Experiencing IT, I Wondered, COULD THIS BE THE FUTURE OF SHIKESPEARE? But it isn’t a moment involved the show’s stars or the words of Shakespeare Himself. It is the Sunday Services Cover of Kanye West’s Song “Ultraralight Beam” that plays when audiences exit theater.
The song coma in slowly, after the actors have all left the stage post-Bows, and if you don’t know this version, it is easy to miss it entirely. I Found MySelf Singing Along Without Quite Knowing What I Was Singing Along to (and Shazam-Ing It is Impossible, Since theater Blocks Up The Audiences in Yondrs). Many of the Audience Members Didn’t SEEM to Know what it was at all. Butn that hit: they are playing a gospel version of one of the ye’s best-known songs, mess than a month and work. IT’S DIFFICULT TO READ The Choice as anything Other than an intensation of the audience to compare othello, who we’ve wen murder his wife to his ego, to current ye. He’s too much of a figure to invoke right now. Ye is an egomaniac, of coursse, and also a black man who experiences real racism at the hand of the White Establishment. He’s has all but tortured his wife (now ex-wife) kim kardashian in public. The Comparison is not obvious, but it is legible and interesting, which is more than you can say for the rest of this production.
IT’S NOT THE FIRST TIME POP SONGS HAVE BEEN USED IN THIS WAY RECENTLY. Earlier this Season, Director Kenny Leon underscored His Production of Our Town‘s bows to “What about us?,” by p! nk. (That Decision Was Ridiculed on social media and the song left the show early in previews.) But while p! nk felt out of touch and a little cringey, “ultraralight beam” dares to increase ours understanding and connects it to modern-day. Onstage. That stands in contrast to the nonspecific post-contemporary “near future” that leon set this Othello in. That setting does nothing to inform the audiences experience of the show – the characters do not appearing the make -key in modern times, just the costumes. On the other hand, the inclusion of this song can actually bring us to draw conflications as to how Shakespeare’s universal work Might Apply Now: What Wold a Modern Othello Look? Maybe it would LOOK LIKE YE, Forcing desdemona to wear increasingly skimpy outfits in public as some kind of humiliation ritual for the crime of femininity instead of simply killing her.
Still, IT’S DISAPPOINTING THAT A LOT OF THE AUDIENCE MEMBERS ARE NOT GOING TO CATCH THIS MOMENT. The fact that ye (extremely reCognizable) voice isn’t on the song means that it sounds like any Other modern gospel track, participate if you’f you’re not regularly listening to Life of Pablo. And it is probably fair to say that that of the many of the (Old, White) Audience Members Who Choose to Pay for $ 900 Tickets Are Not, In Fact, Listening to Life of Pablo. It ‘s Interesting Choice but Also a Missed Opportunity – A Show that is purportedly set in the futures isn’t forcing audiences to contest with “Now.”
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