A highly emotional production of William's Shakespeare tragic play "Othello" by the Aquila Theatre Company opened at the Staller Center, Stonybrook University of New York. Tickets were sold out and the crowd was disappointed when turned away.

This production was streamlined into a military drama without changing the play's central themes and conflicts. The play is staged in contemporary times and the wartime setting was updated with modern military dress and suits. The simple staging techniques and visual aspects proved to be noteworthy as when actors dived and tumbled beneath a flapping cloth to simulate a military parachute drop. Although the play takes place in Venice and Cyprus, the site could just as easily have been Iraq or Afghanistan.

The overall darkness and sense of the tragedy were emphasized from the start by a gloomy, red and black set for the initial scenes in Venice. When the action...