STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
William Shakespeare’s “Othello” focuses on the jealously created in men by other men, giving short shrift to Othello’s wife who was murdered after wrongfully being accused of adultery.
But Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel’s “Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief” gives voice to Othello’s wife and other women as they banter about women who have become “vessels of vinegar” and more.
The result: a tale of cruelty, rivalry and revenge among women that are practically footnotes in Shakespeare’s tale. And it’s one that The Liberty Theatre Company is staging through July 22.
“The play of ‘Othello’ focuses on the jealousy created in men by other men, but never takes into account the personhood of Desdemona or Emilia or Bianca. This play gives them the stage to be messy, sexy, silly, petty people, and looks at how these women fight against the fate that the play of Othello sets up for them,” said Los Angeles-based play and film director Veronica Moonhill, who was assistant to the director of the motion picture “Where the Crawdads Sing.”
The play runs through July 22 upstairs at The Mint in Hailey with evening shows starting at 7 p.m. and matinees at 2.
Aly Wepplo plays Desdemona; Audra Honaker, her long-suffering scullery maid, and Tess Makena, a brothel owner who secretly yearns for the stability of marriage.
The Desdemona of Shakespeare’s telling is a Venetian beauty who enrages her father—a Venetian senator---when she elopes with Othello, a Moorish Venetian military genius who gifts her with a lovely handkerchief. She accompanies Othello to Cyprus where Iago—Emila’s husband—steals Desdemona’s handkerchief and plants it in the room of Othello’s lieutenant Cassio, leading Othello to believe she’s been unfaithful.
The naïve faithful Desdemona of Shakespeare’s play is not the Desdemona of this new telling.
The Desdemona of Vogel’s play is bratty, spoiled, somewhat of an airhead. She spends her nights in Bianca’s brothels, sleeping with nearly everyone in her husband’s army just for the thrill of the conquest. And in this play Emila’s husband doesn’t take her handkerchief; rather, Desdemona loses it because she cares little about her husband’s gift or their relationship.
What does honesty have to do with adultery—every honest man I know is an adulterer, she says.
“Desdemona is a bit of a brat,” said Wepplo. “And she's lovable, too. It's delicious to play someone so complicated. Is she a villain or a hero? She's both, and she's neither.”
Emilia, who spends the entire play folding clothes, beating dust out of sheets, scrubbing floors, stitching clothes and paring potatoes, is the more thoughtful and smarter of the two. She rolls her eyes and scowls at Desdemona’s thoughtless remarks. And her long-suffering faithfulness to Desdemona is tested sorely as Desdemona taunts her by reminding her of her place and dangling promises in front of her to get what she wants.
Not only is Emilia trapped by her low status in life but she feels trapped in a loveless marriage to the cruel, manipulative Iago whom, she wishes, would leave her a wealthy widow sooner rather than later.
The Mint stage has been transformed by James Haycock into a 16th century laundry room with linens hanging on lines and a stone fireplace carved out of foam.
“ ‘Othello’ is such a complicated play—one in which women are relegated to doing some pretty mundane things. So, it’s fun to see them get to make some of the choices that men made for them in the the play,” said Moonhill.
Vogel’s “Indecent,” about a play director convicted for obscenity in 1923, won a Tony Award for Best Play. Vogel received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play “How I Learned to Drive,” about a strained sexual relationship between Li’l Bit and Uncle Peck.
IF YOU GO:
“Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief” starts at 7 p.m. tonight and Sunday, July 9. There also will be a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, July 9.
The 7 p.m. Thursday, July 13, performance will be dedicated to Hailey artist Margery Gail Friedlander, a long-time supporter of theater in the valley. Subsequent shows of “Desdemona” will be staged at 7 p.m. Friday, July 14; Saturday, July 15; Wednesday, July 19; Thursday, July 20; and Friday, July 21. Additional 2 p.m. matinees will be held on Sunday, July 16, and Saturday, July 22.
Tickets are available at https://www.libertytheatrecompany.org/ticketing-page-pass or by calling 208-582-8388.
The new Local’s “Pay What You Feel” 2023/24 Season Pass also been extended through July 10. The pass includes one ticket for each of the five shows in the 2023/24 season, which begins with “Desdemona,” a 10 percent discount to eat at The Mint the night of the show and the opportunity to select performance dates before anyone else.