McClinton, best known for directing August Wilson's works, tackles 'Othello'

When the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis decided to present "Othello" for the first time in nearly 20 years, it turned to Marion McClinton, an award-winning director whom theaters rarely offer Shakespeare.

Lauded as a leading director of August Wilson's work and other plays about the African-American experience, McClinton has worked on and off Broadway as well as at many regional theaters. But theaters often overlooked him on the prestigious works.

So when Guthrie Artistic Director Joe Dowling asked McClinton to direct Othello, he jumped at the chance. He finds bringing the tragedy to the stage worthwhile because of Shakespeare's ability to capture the human condition. The show, which is currently in previews, opens on Friday.

"Othello" is a notoriously difficult play, a tragedy laced with love, deceit, and murderous jealousy. Underlying the work is the inescapable issue of race, as Othello the Moor faces the malevolence of all-white Venice.

McClinton and his cast are finding friendship helps them weather the play's challenges, among them the fight choreography. During a rehearsal, it takes a while for the actors to work out a safe and visible way to do the scene.

"Villain! Thou diest!" shouts a would-be assassin, who is stabbed and bleeding on the floor for his trouble. "I am slain!"

As McClinton watched from the front of the room, he admitted some trepidation about the rehearsal, the cast's first run at the final act in Othello. It marks the time in the play when the poisonous plotting of Iago to make Othello doubt the love of his wife Desdemona comes to its bloody end.

"There's a sense of dread I have coming to it," the director said. "Because I know lives are going to be destroyed irrevocably."

McClinton describes "Othello" as the best play on jealousy, one that shows how easy it is to mistrust somebody you love — a difficult tale for everyone in the theater.

"It's a huge tragedy," he said. "And at the end the stage is littered with dead people, which is hard on you working on it and hard on the audience following them to this conclusion."

McClinton, who has a reputation for speaking out when he sees injustice, thinks deeply about the plays he directs.

As an African-American, he knows "Othello" comes with racial baggage. For centuries the role was played by white actors in black face, more as a monster than hero, and his relationship with the white Desdemona was scandalous to some.

"Is it a racist play? It's been called that. I've called it that in the past," he said. "But working on it, I don't see it as such. Once you start working on a play you start working on the characters."

Those characters are played by a carefully chosen cadre of actors. Peter Macon is Othello the military hero, returned from war, and smitten by love. Tracey Maloney is Desdemona, the happy object of Othello's desire. Stephen Yoakam is Iago, who convinces Othello of Desdemona's infidelity with disastrous results.

For Yoakam, the play has been intense, but fun.

"We are laughing a lot," he said. "When you do a show like this you've got to laugh a lot because there is so much serious stuff that happens. So we are laughing a lot."

All three actors have long histories working with McClinton. Macon said he considers McClinton a mentor.

"And who knew? A black man directing Othello? Like 'Wow!'" he laughed. "The amount of insight. It's amazing."

Each is now playing an iconic character. When asked to come up with a single word to describe the public perception of their role, and then another to describe it as they see it themselves, all three are game.

"I think with Desdemona the word most people would use might be 'innocent,'" Maloney said. "And I think the word I would use is 'strength.' That she is strong. That there is a strength because of her innocence."

"I think the public perception of Iago is that he is, two words, the ultimate evil," Yoakam said. "And I say my perception is, not completely tongue in cheek, that he's misunderstood."

Macon said it's impossible to define the popular view of Othello in one word. Shakespeare presents him as a hero albeit humanly flawed. Yet over the centuries directors and actors have not been as kind, dwelling on his murderous rage, and his race. But Macon quickly finds a word for his own perception of Othello.

"It's 'new,'" he said. "He's not fighting, there's no war and he is experiencing love for the first time."

When asked what he hopes audiences will take away from the play, Marion McClinton condenses the play into one powerful sentence.

"A very sad story of two people who should have had a better life," he said.

The story has such power, he said, that it's no mystery it's still going strong, four hundred years after its first performance.