by Harry Duke

The “green-eyed monster” is running amok in the field next to the 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa with the Jacobethan Theatre Workshop’s Shakespeare in the Park(ing Lot) production of Othello. The show has two remaining performances – Saturday, August 9, at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, August 10, at 6:00 pm. 

After a couple of years performing in the parking lot of the nearby Arlene Francis Center, the company decided to move a bit further away from the SMART Train tracks and found a willing host in 6th Street Playhouse. 

Were it so that the move reduced the amount of distracting environmental noise. The still-nearby SMART Train was the least intrusive element.

Credit to the show’s cast for getting through the performance and keeping the audience in rapt attention despite car alarms, bicyclists with boom boxes blaring the Bee Gees, several low-flying passes by Henry-One, and the noise emanating from the Sonoma County Fair’s Monster Trucks event.

But I wouldn’t expect anything less from the cast of this production. Co-directors David Lear and Corisa Aaronson have gathered some of the North Bay’s finest actors for some of Shakespeare’s juiciest roles. 

Venetian General Othello (Isaiah Carter) has married his love Desdemona (Taylor Diffenderfer), much to the consternation of her father (Jon Rathjen) and Rodrigo (Kevin Bordi), who had his eyes on Desdemona.  

Iago (Keith Baker), pissed at Othello for promoting Cassio (John Browning) over him to be his lieutenant, seeks an opening to bring Othello down and he doesn’t care who he has to use to achieve that goal. Rodrigo becomes the first pawn in his game of human chess, followed by Cassio, his own wife (Ally Bray), and eventually Othello himself.  Jealousy is the tool he will craftily use against them all, leading to [SPOILER ALERT] the death of just about everybody.

Shakespeare’s 400+ year-old look at what human beings will do for status retains its power today, not the least because it may also be the earliest extant work that examines how racism contributes to the evil that men do. Some of the dialogue is difficult to hear spoken out loud, but it’s comparable to what too many people are spouting today. 

Isaiah Carter is absolutely commanding in the role of Othello, more than convincingly playing the arc from devoted lover to jealous monster whose destruction is as much his own responsibility as it is Iago’s. Taylor Diffenderfer is just as strong as the doomed Desdemona.

Iago is a lying, scheming, manipulative piece of shit, and there’s no better actor at playing a lying, scheming, manipulative piece of shit than Keith Baker. (I hope he takes that bit of criticism in the spirit in which it is intended.) Kevin Bordi brings welcome comedy relief and true pain to his blustering Rodrigo. Ally Bray does well with her work as the villainous Iago’s wife, who discovers too late the role she’s played in the tragedy.  

Beyond the aforementioned extraneous noise issues, and as is often the case at site-specific performances, sightlines were occasionally a problem, with the seats all at one level and a fair deal of the action taking place at ground level or at a low-level on the somewhat-raised stage. They might consider spacing the seats a bit further apart for their second production (The Merry Wives of Windsor).

As there is little to no set beyond the stage, period costumes by Tracy Hinman give the show its sense of time and place. The lighting is limited but still effective. 

Despite minor quibbles, as someone once said, “The play’s the thing”. The power of this play and the caliber of the performances make it well worth the effort to attend.

The Jacobethan Theatre Workshop Shakespeare in the Park(ing Lot) production of ‘Othello’ runs through August 10 in the field adjancent to 6th Street Playhouse, 52 West 6th Street, Santa Rosa. Saturday, 7:30pm; Sunday, 6:00 pm. Free. (Donations graciously accepted.) jacobethan.org.

Photos courtesy Corisa Aaronson and Tracy Hinman.