The last few weeks have been full of the editing process, and working with David to finish the Othello short.
I've taken a back seat, enjoying watching D. making changes and edits, both of us learning Final Cut Pro, and finally coming to grips with the issue of subtitling the film.

This is yet another stage where I have become fascinated by the general differences between the terms "translation" and "interpretation" - where translating the play is not necessarily like telling the story. This time-limited short film, and D's storyboard for a short film has to edit the play in order to introduce the characters immediately, and get on with it, while not piling the info on too fast for the viewer.

Meanwhile, during the course of these three months, we have both been working within our individual limitations, and getting used to sharing skills and languages, coming from two fundamentally distinct linguistics and grammars (English and BSL) So, this interpretation of Shakespeare, is actually transferred back into written English text as subtitles.

It is different from making the whole play from the original text, which would be an enormous job, yet even now I am contemplating just that. But, more about that later.

First, this interpretation, is a 10 minute short that deals with introducing the audience to the characters Othello, and Iago. Both characters are played by D. -who is convincing as both. This in itself unleashes an interesting dynamic not entered into in the original script. As D. is black therefore not only Othello 'the Moor" is black, but so too is Iago, and the scheme devised by Iago takes on very different connotations. Iago invokes the undercurrent of racism implicit in the characters and in the society of the "Venice" in the play for his own ends. In this sense, Iago is a Judas not only to Othello, but ultimately to his race: willing to play on, and reinforce prejudice and cultural stereotypes which could as easily work against him, in his seeking of power.
"Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely".

This is a powerful metaphor, and one which, in the context of this short film, could also be viewed in terms of prejudice against Deaf people (especially as only these two characters appear in any of the scenes). Where one Deaf character betrays in order to rise in power, and therefore forsakes the common ground of Deaf issues that Iago and Othello share. However, this is not clear, as the issue of deafness is not raised in the context of the film (where BSL is the language of the characters, just as in hearing productions the characters use English). Therefore the deafness of the characters is not necessarily an attribute, which affects their actions, or the outcome. This is one of the strengths of what David has tried to do. Of course, it does affect the making of the film, and this experience has been a door for me to understand how the frame and storytelling nature -which the language demands- is an integral part of the film both in content and style.

In the last two days I have had a rough DV copy of the film here at home to view for the first time, indeed we still have to work on the subtitles and their timing, which is why I wrestle with the potential for turning back to the original play, and extracting from it the original shakespear quotes for some of the dialogue. My first reaction is to consider the original play as a whole, its familiar lines like "I wear my heart on my sleeve" (Iago), and translate its poetics into Sign Language. But then of course the nature of poetics in English is not the same as poetics in BSL. If we consider broadly that the poetics of a language exist:
in the abstract nature of each languages linguistics, in the coincidences of meaning (the phonetics of rhyme, for example)
or
in the influence of the reader as well as writer, then we should not expect English and Sign Language to have exactly the same abstractions.

Yet while the abstractions and slang, the dialects and accents of English and Sign are different, they are only similar in that all of these aspects are equally varied, and change from region to region, culture to culture, generation to generation, and even person to person. So, is it enough to translate Shakespeare's Othello into BSL, when it is apparent that much of the english language poetic structure would be lost, or change, or perhaps even cease to exist in another language? This leads us to interpretation: We are leaving the "word for word" challenge of translation behind, and seeking to convey meaning, interactions, and poetics, by converting the "abstracts" unique to English into "abstracts" unique to British Sign Language expression.

By this I do not mean the equivalent of the play being acted and spoken for a hearing audience, with a Signing interpreter stood to stage left or right. David's intention is clearly to recreate Othello in Sign Language, where the abstracts of the dialogue may vary in different languages, yet as Shakespeare intended, would compliment the drama as it unfolds. And it is worth remembering that the audience which Shakespeare was writing for at the time, was largely an illiterate one.

So, here I list some of the things that I see left out, due largely to the short duration of the film:

First there is the character Roderigo's love for Desdemona, and the reason that he wishes his revenge on Othello who has secretly married her and therefore taken her from him. In this film Roderigo is only briefly mentioned. However, in the original R. is crucial to Iago's scheme: R. goes to Iago first to try and enlist I. in his (R's) plot of vengeance on Othello. Iago in turn plays on R's racial prejudice and fear, suggesting that Desdemona is the young/virginal innocent, preyed upon by the lusting Othello:"An old black ram is tupping the white ewe!". Itsa also intriguing that age as well as race is a factor in the play. I. says he is 28 "4 times 7 years", yet his nickname is "ancient", while the age disparity between Othello and Desdemona is often mentioned alongside the racist innuendoes muttered in their absence. Another reason to Iago's scheming is that he considers he should be further up the career ladder than he is, and like a professional footballer of that age, he wants to rise to his ambitions before it is too late.

Then there are the two references Iago makes of his suspicions of his own wife's infidelity e.g. "that 'twixt my sheets Othello has done my office" and therefore he seeks revenge on Othello.

All this explains the plays otherwise strange introduction where, it is in fact Roderigo who first approaches Iago about plotting against Othello, yet soon, Roderigo is in Iago's pocket and convinces Roderigo that Desdemona will soon tire of O. and that O. himself is just an older man past his best consumed by lust because he is a "Moor". In the meanwhile we know all along that Iago is playing Roderigo for the fool, who had no chance of gaining the affections of Desdemona. Right from the start, Othello's ego blinds him to Iago's long standing hatred "My parts, my title, and my perfect soul manifest me rightly". Iindeed Iago's suspicions of O and his own wife, may be nothing more that I's frustrations turned inward in fantastical jealousy.

Or, if we forget typical interpretations of Othello as an overconfident ego, (he considers his position safe, he has a political as well as military career, in fact I'm sure that I am not the first to make the modern comparison of Othello with Colin Powell, the present Secretary of State in the USA.)

I mention this, because you could look at the character of Othello not as over ego-ed, but as fair enough: a black person who has risen to power in a racially prejudiced environment, who values his squeky clean credentials etc. In fact, coupled with Cassio's loss of "reputation reputation reputation", one of the plays most difficult points is in explaining how Othello and Cassio - being so upright, honest, educated etc. end up "losing it" completely, and fall prey to the machinations and scheming of Iago. It appears that the two most stable "characters" in the play are the ones who are ensnared into violence and murder.

These are some of the "abstracts" that this short film has no time to go into, it therefore focuses on the distilled drama of the struggle for power and command. However, to take this jewel of an idea forward, we need much more time and resource, as any production of such a full blown tragedy would require. Because the entire play is embroiled in cuckolding intrigue, and as these sexual tensions surface the characters themselves are taken to their own internal extremes. It is this distressing atmosphere of innuendo and egos in which the ensuing tragedy plays out before the all knowing audience.

So, for the moment we make do with what we can, and hope that we can continue to develop from this short film a BSL interpretation of the full-blown account which Shakespeare created. I hope we can somehow make this happen, because I think this short film shows the actor David Ellington capable of expanding these classic roles, and bringing these characters to life on the screen in the language of BSL.

m.d.