Shakespeare?s Othello ? A Prayer Before Dying
I am often asked what’s my favorite Shakespeare play. It’s like asking me to pick my favorite ice cream. Sure, there are favs, but it’s ice cream – the worst I’ve had is terrific. Having performed about two-thirds of the canon, any list of mine would have Much Ado and Twelfth Night at the top, alongside R&J , R3 , and Mackers , because they’re fun to do. But it often depends upon the day, and my mood. A much easier question to answer is what is my favorite moment in Shakespeare. There are only a handful, because I lean towards the heart-breaking. Juliet’s line to dead Romeo: “Thy lips are warm.” Kent holding dead Lear: “Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass.” But the one that kills me every time is from Othello . Perversely, it’s a line that is almost always cut in performance. By Act V, Othello is utterly convinced that his faithful wife is anything but, that she has been carrying on with his young lieutenant, Cassio. But he still loves her – if he did not he could not be so pas