Elliot Johnson plays Othello in The New Place Players’ production at Casa Clara Photo: Carol Rosegg
Live chamber music, full Renaissance costumes and an intimate theater that brings the play, quite literally, right into your lap. What more could you ask for?
The New Place Players have a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience being offered right now at Casa Clara – a unique foundry and artist studio nestled into the heart of Gramercy. This extraordinary townhouse apartment has been transformed into a worthy backdrop for the latest reimagining of The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice.
It’s the first production since their pandemic-induced hiatus, for the New Place Players, a theater company that describes itself as “an ensemble of actors and musicians which creates dynamic, fully realized productions of Shakespeare’s plays.”
Part of this dynamism is created by actors breaking the fourth wall. Be prepared, as you line the performance space, to lock eyes with Desdemona during one of her loving soliloquies, or cross the sight of the scheming Iago as he plots his next diabolical move.
Elliot Johnson as Othello and Alanah Allen as his confused but doting wife create the spark that drives the players on. Before that, it’s the roused panic of Brabantio, vividly brought to life here by the excellent and powerful Matthew Dudley, which makes clear the stakes and which crystallizes the critical racial theme.
The maelstrom in total, though, is felt to revolve around the mind of one Conor Andrew Hall,…
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