Taking ‘Son of Othello’ as One Likes It

Tom Jacobson has an idea, or four, for his play “Son of Othello”: a satire of academic politics, a riff on Shakespearean authorship, a gay love story and a 16th century pirate adventure. Jacobson is so busy filling his kettle that he never gets time to stir the brew smooth, but he does produce some authentically funny situations and lively thinking along the way. The play is at the Celebration Theatre in Hollywood.

Morris (Jerry Dixon) is a Renaissance scholar up for tenure at a Los Angeles university. He’s writing the expected, boring book--”tired old hairstyles in Jacobean tragedy, or whatever,” as his friend Janine (Rhonda Aldrich) describes it. But he loses interest after a mysterious stranger sends him a 16th century Venetian manuscript. Translating it, Morris comes to believe that the manuscript is by the son of the man who was the original model for Othello. As he translates more of the impossibly exciting memoir of Othello’s son--Antonio--Morris becomes convinced not only that the manuscript is authentic, but also that Antonio wound up in England and wrote “Othello” for Shakespeare, here portrayed as a lazy actor who affixed his well-known name to other people’s plays to make them more commercial.

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When Morris, a gay African American, gets ready to proclaim to the world that a black man wrote “Othello” and all of Shakespeare’s plays that came after, not to mention the sonnets, the academic community promises to have a collective heart attack. Further, his white lover Keith (Neil Tadken) threatens to leave if the obsessed and increasingly erratic Morris can’t be nice.

The actors take parts in both Morris’ world and in the 16th century adventures of Antonio. The past and present collide dizzily, sometimes in the middle of a line (Bronwen Shirk’s flexible costuming helps a lot). Director Fred Sanders keeps the complicated action clear. The comedy ranges widely from inventive to mundane. A play that depicts a multifaceted academic power struggle also has Keith saying “kewl” (instead of “cool”) over and over.

Dixon and Tadken are solid in the leading roles, but the best comedy belongs to the smaller roles. Marc Grady Adams is quietly wry as a conniving professor and also as a corrupt monk who’s out of an R-rated “Candide.” Aldrich is coolly elegant as a 16th century lady, and Gloria Hendry transforms from a self-serious academic to a 16th century pirate king who is actually a woman in disguise. In a variety of small roles, Dierk Torsek makes each of them delicious.

“Son of Othello” skirts hot-potato issues of culture wars being waged on university campuses, but its skirting is superficial. Jacobson goes for laughs and often gets them. But one senses in this play he could have gone for something more.

* “Son of Othello,” Celebration Theatre, 7051-B Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Dark July 4-6. Ends July 27. $20. (213) 857-8085. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.