Othello is a play about jealousy, love, honour and duty.

Othello (played by Lenny Henry) marries Desdemona (Jessica Harris) and they are happily in love, but Iago - Othello's ensign, played superbly by Conrad Nelson - decides to interfere. Without giving away too much of the plot, Iago sets about destroying Othello, uncaring as to who else he wounds along the way. As long as Iago himself is not incriminated, he is satisfied to set the wheels in motion, then move out of sight to watch events develop. Iago is a fantastic character and Conrad Nelson stole the show for me in this role. I had gone to watch Lenny Henry really - who certainly impressed with his convincing performance and powerful presence. When we arrived and bought a programme, I was pleased to see I recognised two other cast members - Richard Standing (who played Father David in Doctors and Danny Hargreaves in Coronation Street a few years ago) and Jessica Harris (who I remembered from Being Human and Holby City). I hadn't heard of Conrad Nelson previously, though he has an impressive CV and is also the Associate Director and Composer here. As Iago, he is on stage for most of the 2 hours 50 minutes and for me, his acting was responsible for drawing me into the story. Like all the best villains, Iago has many sides to his character and Conrad Nelson showed the audience all of them perfectly. One minute, he's the jovial good-natured charmer; next, he's ruthless, devious and manipulative, dripping his poison in the ears of those around him. All the way through, the other characters refer to 'honest Iago', while the audience know differently. The rest of the cast was very good throughout. While Conrad Nelson and Lenny Henry were outstanding, the performances from Jessica Harris (Desdemona) and Richard Standing (Cassio) are also worthy of special praise. Jessica's small frame worked very well with Lenny's height and build, as he picks her up and whirls her round the stage in delight. She is a convincing Desdemona, a sweet, innocent, youthful beauty and her performance is often beguiling. Richard Standing's Cassio is well done throughout, with the highlight being his wonderfully comic - yet realistic - drunk acting, as he becomes inebriated with the other soldiers.

The set of Othello is simple, but effective. On the front row of the theatre, we were privy to every bead of sweat and each drop of spit, but I do enjoy being close to the stage and feel wonderfully enveloped in the play. Performances like this one are inspiring and fill me with passion for Shakespeare, the theatre and acting. In Conrad Nelson, I feel we have a genius, possibly one of the best actors in the country. Yet, as he hasn't starred in EastEnders, 99% of Britain will have no idea who he is. Sometimes, fame and talent are completely different things.

'Othello' is one of Shakespeare's four greatest tragedies, the others being 'Hamlet,' 'King Lear' and 'Macbeth.' The play resonates with symbolism, possibly more so than any other Shakespeare

play. Perhaps this is because, unlike the other great tragedies, 'Othello' is a personal tragedy, rather than one played out against the background of history and important personages. For this reason, symbols take on a more personal importance. That said, one type of symbolism in the play affects all the main protagonists. This is the geographical symbolism of the play's two locations - Venice and Cyprus. At the time the play was written - 1604 - Venice was a powerful, wealthy city state. Othello has adopted the city as his own, and he is a successful general, respected and admired to such an extent that the Duke chooses him to travel to Cyprus - a military outpost of Venice - to deal with the threatened invasion of the Turks. Desdemona, whom he marries in secret, is the daughter of respected senator, Brabantio. When she follows Othello to Cyprus, she leaves behind the protection of her father, who disowns her, and the familiar support system of her home city. Although they have defied convention by marrying, while they are in Venice they are bound by the rules of Venetian society. Once they move to Cyprus, they are in a strange land, where different rules apply, and the heat of the island is reflected in the intensity of the emotions that surface. That Cyprus is a symbolic location is underlined by the fact that it is mentioned more than 24 times in the text. It's far from Venice, and because the main protagonists are removed from their normal environment, Iago is able to conduct his mischief unchecked and undiscovered until it is too late. It's made clear how different life is in Cyprus when Lodovico, fresh from Venice, witnesses Othello strike Desdemona: My lord, this would not be believed in Venice, Though I should swear I saw't. (4. 1. 257, 258) The second main source of symbolism in 'Othello' is the handkerchief. This illustrates just how personal the symbolism can be. It is Othello's first gift to Desdemona, and it originally belonged to his mother, so it means a lot to both of them. Desdemona drops the handkerchief when she is trying to soothe away Othello's headache, at the end of this so-called 'Corruption Scene.' (Act 3, Scene 3). Emilia picks it up, because Iago has asked her to obtain it, though she does not know why he wants it. He intends to plant it in Cassio's lodging, as 'proof' of Desdemona's affair with him. The true meaning of the handkerchief as a symbol is revealed when Othello asks to see it, after Iago has told him he has seen Cassio wipe his beard with it, and the speech is so important to the action it is worthy of reproduction in full. That handkerchief Did an Egyptian to my mother give;

She was a charmer, and could almost read

The thoughts of people. She told her, while she kept it, 'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father Entirely to her love, but if she lost it Or made a gift of it, my father's eye Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt After new fancies. She dying gave it me, And bid me, when my fate would have me wive, To give it her. I did so, and take heed on't; Make it a darling like your precious eye; To lose't or give't away were such perdition As nothing else could match. (3. 4. 59 - 72) To Othello, it is a symbol of both faithfulness, as his mother kept it with her until her death, and faithlessness, as Desdemona fails to keep it safe. To Desdemona, it's a symbol of both Othello's love for and trust in her, and his unfounded distrust of her. To Emilia, it's a way to please her uncaring husband, Iago. To Iago, it's an important part of his plan to destroy Othello, while to Cassio, it is of so little importance that he gives it to the whore, Bianca. While all the evidence of Desdemona's adultery is fabricated, the handkerchief is solid proof, according to Othello's troubled mind. It's ironic - and tragic - that the first loving gift Othello gives to his wife is, in effect, her instrument of death. Only Shakespeare could invest such an ordinary household item with such extraordinary and potent symbolism. Othello, the Moor of Venice is one of the greatest and most famous of the tragedies written by the great English playwright, William Shakespeare, and is thought to have been written around 1603. There are four main characters in the play, Othello, a Moorish general in the army of Venice; his beautiful, gentle and white wife Desdemona; Othellos lieutenant, the good- natured Cassio and his ensign the manipulative villain Iago; however the most important, interesting and complex character of them all is naturally Othello himself.

Othello is a Moor an African prince - as well as being a much respected general in the Venetian army. He is a noble and imposing man as well as been highly respected as a soldier: in fact he is so respected by the Duke of Venice that the Duke sends for his help when Cyprus is threatened by the Turkish army. The character of Othello does change greatly through the play; we start off by seeing him as a calm and proud man with patience and intelligence, a man oozing self-confidence; once the manipulative Iago has been at work and planted the seeds of jealousy we see a more brutal and wicked nature take over from all these good and honourable qualities.

In Act One it is an intelligent and diplomatic Othello who is accused by Brabantio of bewitching his daughter, Desdemona. When the enraged father shouts at the general "O thou foul thief,

where hast thou stow'd my daughter?" (I.ii.62-4), Othello, with poise and dignity, manages to convince Brabantio that the union between him and the young Desdemona is one bore out of love not witchcraft.

Despite his grandeur and position, Othello is also a somewhat nave character; he displays a completely trusting nature at the beginning of the play; he seems totally innocent about the corruptness of others, especially the villainous Honest Iago, into whom he puts all his trust. Neither does he see that there could be any possible deceit in his wife, even when he is given the ominous warning in Act One: "Look to her, Moor, if thou has eyes to see: She has deceived her father, and may thee" (I, iii, lines 286-7) Despite this naiveness though, the opening acts show a man who is completely in control, a true leader; so much so that as we witness the change in his personality we cant quite believe it, nor could the other characters - when vLodovico saw Othello strike Desdemona, he is completely shocked and asks Is this the nature Whom passion could not shake?

It is in Act Two, as Othello takes his place as the Governor of Cyprus, that the great changes are seen in his character, as the malicious Iago manages to convince him, wrongly, that Desdemona is having an affair with his lieutenant Cassio. He foolishly believes the lies about his wife from the Honest Iago despite some very flimsy evidence. Eventually it is this very belief that eats away at the good natured Othello to change him into a jealous and raging man who takes the life of his loyal and loving wife and later his own when the truth dawns that he was wrong and had been duped by the evil Iago. It was jealousy that ate into the once noble, calm and dignified man, fuelled by the lies fed to him by Iago; who himself was jealous at not being made lieutenant. The changes in Othellos character were all orchestrated by the work of the ruthless and manipulative Iago, and were all down to jealousy. But can all the blame be put onto Iago? While he is obviously by far the most evil of the two characters; the great and good Othello does not put up much resistance to the manipulations of Iago and he all too easily lets his baser instincts take over from his better nature. While Othello was without doubt a great and strong military leader he was insecure and lacking self confidence in his personal matters, and far too easily swayed..

When a friend and a trusted soldier puts flimsy circumstances before him about his wifes loyalty, Othello immediately allows his military instinct to take over and he seeks justice, justice and revenge because his innocent young wife had, in his eyes, made him look like an idiot: "she must die, else she'll betray more men" (5.2.6) Even when the truth dawns and Othello realizes that he has taken the life of an innocent woman, he again looks for justice, this time by taking his own life. Othello may have been a tragic figure, but he was still a murderer, and a man who was foolish and nave enough to let his trust and his pride strip away his nature so that at the end of the play our tragic protagonist not only loses his wife and his life but also his prized reputation.

I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee: no way but this; Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.