Iago the spider

There is a lot made of Richard III being "the bottled spider," and Antony Sher's famous portrayal of him (and his book chronicling that) has cemented that image in the shared consciousness of Shakespeare lovers everywhere.  How I would have loved to see him fight with those crutches.  But Iago also represents the spider.  He says:

"He takes her by the palm: ay, well said, whisper: with as little web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio."

Iago is an opportunist.  He's not the great strategist or puppet master that one might think he is.  He's like a spider building a web in an advantageous space, and once he catches his prey, he strikes quickly.  Poor Roderigo was caught long ago, and put in stasis for feeding at Iago's leisure. 

I like this image. Iago as an insect with only one goal--to feed.  And like spider webs being blown down with heavy winds, or bigger animals crashing through them, he again and again has to build new webs. He's very good at improv, spider-Iago. 

We are nearly half way through our rehearsal process before tech week.  Which is terrifying, because we have so much to do still.  We still need to block the end of the play...murders and all.  I have many lines to learn.  Although, I'm happy to report that I have learned the "put money in thy purse" speech, which was my most daunting because a) it's prose, b) it's very repetitive, with slight variations, and c) it's super famous and I was a little scared of it.  So, I'm getting big chunks shoved into my brain. 

Today was largely devoted to combat.  There is much violence in Othello, and it all has to be choreographed and it has to be safe, and it has to be cool.  And I'm the guy who does that.  As the fight choreographer for SBTS, I love days like today.  Giving the framework for the violence.  Figuring it all out, and teaching those who haven't had a lot of experience with weapons how to look cool and not get hurt, or hurt anybody else.  It's fun.  And tomorrow I get to go and stage the fights for Cymbeline.  It's the best.

I'm going to look at some more lines now, but I just wanted to jot down that spider image.  And just now it occurs to me, that spiders are also prey for larger creatures and must also be somewhat cautious.  Yes.  So good.