EDFRINGE REVIEW: Iago Speaks (Rumpus)

Iago Speaks - ★★★★☆ – Fascinating 

Rumpus
1-23 Aug
Review by Rebecca Mahar
 
“Demand me nothing: what you know, you know:
From this time forth I never will speak word.”
 
Iago’s final line in Othello is as fittingly enigmatic as the rest of this, Shakespeare’s most notorious villain. A riddle wrapped in a mystery wrapped in the green-eyed monster of jealousy, Iago keeps his own counsel, neither seeking to justify or explain his actions, and refusing to give his fellow characters, or the audience, the satisfaction of a tidy explanation for his heinous deeds. But what happens after the play, when everyone else is dead and Iago is taken away in chains?

Joshua Beaudry and Skye Brandon in Iago Speaks. Pic: Rumpus.

On the surface, this seems to be the question that Iago Speaks seeks to answer. Upon arrival into the space, the audience is greeted by Iago (Skye Brandon) pacing his prison cell, silent and stoic. But when the lights go down, another character bursts into the scene: the Jailer (Joshua Beaudry), exploding through a curtain with a huge yell, and a moment of confusion as he slaps his face and seems to try to work out where he is.
 
Once he settles, the Jailer launches into an extended monologue about his job, Iago, how he’s always doing the same thing over and over; making reference to “all the other ones,” and it quickly becomes clear that he is not just a Jailer, but theunnamed Jailer who appears in so many of Shakespeare’s plays. Aware of the audience, he carries on and on until finally he annoys Iago so much that the prisoner snaps and breaks his silence.

Joshua Beaudry and Skye Brandon in Iago Speaks. Pic: Jodi Woollam.

 
Beaudry gives a magnificently energetic mostly-solo performance until this point, interacting with Iago’s stone wall of looks, physical deterrence, and the world’s longest pee. This section does feel like it goes on a bit too long; Beaudry is giving his all, but Daniel Macdonald’s script could probably do with some judicious editing here.
 
The play really picks up when Brandon joins Beaudry in the speaking world: first simply exasperated, and then beginning to sow the seeds of a plan for escape when the Jailer refuses to leave Iago alone, wanting to know how he always has the right words, and trying to convince him that the audience exists. 
 
Macdonald’s writing pulls together the various strands of its story with intelligence and subtlety, balancing exploration of the idea of the universal Jailer with an epilogue for Iago, peppered with humour throughout. Its metatheatrical nature doesn’t quite feel complete, though, as if the script is trying to do a little too much, torn between whether its primary focus should be on Iago or the Jailer.
 
The answer seems like it should be the latter, especially given how the play ends— a worthy contribution to post-Shakespeare investigations of the minor characters without whom the plays would be incomplete, and questions of but what happened offstage?
 
Running time: One hour and fifteen minutes with no interval
Venue: the Space @ Surgeon’s Hall (1-9^{th &} 12-23); theSpace Triplex (11-16^th)
1-23 August 2025 (not 10, 17)
Time: 10:25pm (1-9^th), 10:05pm (11-16^th), 9:25pm (18-23^rd)
Tickets: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/iago-speaks