An Interview with Kent Thompson

There were a couple parts of this interview that intrigued me, but what intrigued me the most was the comment that Kent Thompson made about producing Othello in a smaller stage to create intimacy with the audience.

The smaller stage that Thompson decided to use for Othello was called the Octagon and held about 225 people. The Octagon was only about 1/3rd the size of the theater that Thompson usually produces Othello in, the Festival Stage. Thompson decided to do this because the smaller stage made the play more intimate with the audience, and made "the pain and anger and racism impossible to escape". I think this was a brilliant move on Thompson's part. The whole reason for plays, and especially tragedies, is to engage the audience and make them feel a certain way. A play wouldn't be successful if it couldn't make the audience feel a certain way after it ended or have lingering emotions after it was over. The smaller stage for Othello really helped all the emotional issues affect the audience and make them think about the play after it ended. Some of these issues throughout the play include, lago's plot to hurt everyone around him, Othello's murder of Desdemona, Othello's suicide, and the overall idea of racism between Othello and his status and marriage in white Venetian society. Of course, everyone felt disgust toward lago because of his evil plot and uncertain reasons to commit such crime. However, there were other emotions felt after the play that weren't as clear-cut. For example, after Othello killed himself should we feel that what Othello did was fair because he took the life of someone he loved and sacrificed himself to make up for it and be with her in the afterlife? Or should we feel upset that Othello didn't man up to his actions and go to Venice to face the consequences for the mistake he made. Some of the emotions we feel after seeing the play are pretty uniform across the audience and others may vary from person to person.

Othello

Wow, this is one long play. I opened up the text to Othello and realized it was almost a hundred pages.  As for the story itself, it was extremely complex and hard to follow. Othello reminded me of the readings we did on Aristotle and tragedy, more specifically the fact that plot the most important piece of a tragedy, as well as how a tragedy should end.

Shakespeare doesn't give a big background on all the characters and let us get to know them and what their personality is like. Rather, he utilizes his characters to help develop his extremely complex plot. Other than Othello and lago, most of the characters don't have very big parts in the play and only serve to help the plot. Shakespeare needs characters like Roderigo, Cassio, and Desdemona so that he can execute his carefully crafted plot about lago plotting his revenge for Othello promoting a younger man, Cassio, above him. And the story continues on and on for a very long time until the climax where the truth comes out about lago and Othello decides to commit suicide rather than face the consequences of his crimes.

There was another part about tragedies from Aristotle that I remember regarding the ending of a tragedy and what should happen so that it is a good tragedy. If i recall correctly, Aristotle states that the main character should realize his mistake and own up to it. Well, that is just about the opposite of what Othello does. Once he realizes that he killed his innocent wife who never committed adultery, Othello decides to commit suicide rather than go to Venice and face the consequences for the crimes that he committed. I feel the correct ending, according to Aristotle at least, would have been for Othello to realize that what he did was wrong and to go to Venice and face whatever punishment awaits him.

Poetics by Aristotle

In The Relative Importance of the Six Elements, Aristotle essentially talked about whether certain elements of the tragedy were important or not. Aristotle says that the greatest element of the tragedy is the structure of the events and the plot. I agree with this statement. Without the plot of a tragedy, you cannot have a coherent play. Sure you can have characters and lines for them to speak, but without an order of events, the audience will be asking why are they saying or doing this? What is the importance of what the characters are saying in relation to the entire play itself? Plot helps us to follow along in the story of a tragedy and understand what is happening throughout.

Another element of tragedy that Aristotle ranked of lower importance is that of characters. Aristotle says that "tragedies of most of our modern poets are devoid of character". In considering this statement, I think back to lecture when Professor Hunt talked about the characters in Greek tragedies. She said that there were only a few actors, usually 3, who would wear masks most of the time and dress up to become many different characters. I can see that characters in tragedies are definitely not as important as the plot. Because the actors are wearing masks, we never get to see their faces and as such don't get to connect with the personalities of the characters in the play as much. The actors also play many roles which serves to show that the characters are only there to enhance the plot and not to have us get to know all the personalities of the various actors on the stage.

Medea

I took some main points from lecture and talked about them in Medea.

Nature of community in Medea

Just like in lecture today, in Medea men are the dominant gender. They own everything, run the city, and participate in all the activities of the city. In Medea, she talks about her frustration that men have all the power and that her husband Jason can just divorce her and take her house and kids and go marry another woman, leaving Medea with nothing.

Another important aspect of community is the importance of speech. This is seen in Medea when she sweet talks Creon into letting her stay for an extra day, tricking Jason into believing that she is okay with the divorce and re-marriage, and when she talked to the King of Athens and was able to stay in Athens in exchange for helping the King become fertile again.

Nature of the stories in Medea

In lecture, we talked about how Greek tragedies' plots are about horrible mistakes that lead to greater suffering. Well, in Medea, her initial mistake was leaving her hometown to marry Jason because he ultimately ended up leaving her for another wife which caused greater suffering to Medea than when she had to leave her family behind. As for Jason, his initial mistake was falling for Medea's scheme and accepting the gifts Medea gave to Jason's new wife. Ultimately, Jason's new wife died as well as his sons, which was far greater suffering than the initial divorce from his original wife.