Piccolo Spoleto: A Brief Guide to Desdemona

An all-female show flips Shakespearean stereotypes

BY NICK SMITH

What is it? Desdemona celebrates Shakespeare's bawdy sense of humor shot through with 21st-century irony and intertextual wit. Writer Paula Vogel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who gives Shakespeare's female characters their due. She fleshes out a backstory for the unjustly vilified Desdemona, providing her with complexity and a lust for life that propels her relationship with Cassio's lover, Bianca — a larger-than-life brothel madam (aren't they all?) who shows Desdemona a trick or two.

Why see it? Think Sex and the Shakespearean City, with Othello's Desdemona as Carrie Bradshaw. The show got a favorable review last August from City Paper critic William Bryan, who marveled at actress Kaitlin Winslow's fake orgasm. With nine months to incubate the show, CofC's Theater Department thesps should have a hit on their hands.

Who should go? If you think Shakespeare's women got a raw deal, you'll appreciate Vogel's attempt to reset the balance. If you have a short attention span, you'll like this too; the play is performed in 30 cinematic "takes."

Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief • Piccolo Spoleto's Stelle Di Domani Series • $12-15 • 1 hour 30 min. • June 5, 7 at 5:30 p.m. • Chapel Theatre, 172 Calhoun St. • (888) 374-2656