Theatre review Sombre, even-toned staging digs subtly into characters

With its fibs, delusions and mislaid props, Shakespeare's Othello is structured almost like farce - one that goes horribly wrong.

- David Jays

In performance, cruel comedy and melodrama can lurch to the fore - but Tim Carroll's sculptural new production stays serious. It is intelligent, if too even-toned to thrill, and it unfolds with rare clarity.

John Douglas Thompson's Othello appears the epitome of calm - an unruffled, spellbinding speaker. Beaming when Desdemona arrives, it's hard to believe their love could falter.

Thompson and Juliet Rylance played these same roles in New York in 2009; the now mature casting (also including Edward Hogg's ill-at-ease Cassio) would suggest cool heads who could easily resolve misunderstandings. These are no callow naifs - but that won't save them.