Entertainment

‘OTHELLO’ PUT IN BAD LIGHT

OTHELLO

At the Baruch Performing Arts Center, 25th Street between Lexington and Third avenues. Through June 27. Call Telecharge, (212) 239-6200.

WHEN the Venetian army descends on Cyprus in the new production of “Othello,” performed by the Aquila Theatre Company, they head for a spot called Bianca’s Bar; we know that’s its name because it’s spelled out in neon.

And, in fact, too much of this “Othello” is spelled out in flashy, cheap neon.

In Bianca’s Bar, sexy belly dancers cavort while equally saucy waitresses leave large menus on tables for the numerous military and nonmilitary customers (this “Othello” has more extras than audience members).

Desdemona, the white wife of black General Othello, enters in a tight white skirt and chats with her infatuated hubby.

Next, there’s a lengthy dance between soldiers and whores, which leads to a slow-motion fight between soldiers.

Officer Cassio consequently is blamed for the fight and degraded in rank by Othello.

Then Major Iago, sly and malevolent, persuades Desdemona to intercede on Cassio’s behalf, and, with the aid of his wife, Lieutenant Emilia, plants her handkerchief on Cassio.

That’s the tone, nasty and nightclubby, of this “Othello,” which is set in a “modern British military base on Cyprus” (and never lets us forget it).

Director and “adapter” Robert Richmond is so concerned with the back story – sexism, militarism, racism – that he fails to compellingly tell the main story.

Lloyd Notice as Othello wields a booming voice but neglects to give us much sense of the man behind the rhetoric. Kathryn Merry makes for a petulant Desdemona, while Anthony Cochrane turns Iago into a career-frustrated opportunist.

In 1998, an “Othello” came to BAM from Britain that used the British colonies as a way into “Othello” without the vulgar overt emphasis of this particular production.

Directed by Sam Mendes, it had a Colonial setting and starred a superb Simon Russell Beale as Iago and an equally good David Harewood as Othello, and it used the lightly sketched setting as background to the story’s psychological tensions.

This “Othello,” however simply employs the main story as distraction from the corny and in-your-face asides.