BEST PERFORMANCE BY A SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A SHAKESPEARE PLAY

Geoffrey Kent in Othello

​Geoffrey Kent’s Iago was hands down the best reason to see the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s Othello last summer. Iago is the epitome of slithering, whispering evil, the barely human creature who brings down the majestic Othello and his innocent wife, Desdemona. Kent made him complex, living the role moment by moment in front of our eyes, showing an infectious joy when his manipulations were going well and displaying honest puzzled calculation when he met an obstacle. Shockingly, he charmed the audience so thoroughly that we almost forgot how hideous Iago’s soul was. “It’s like working on a suicide-prevention hotline, as volunteers in Seattle once did,” we wrote at the time, “and discovering that the nice young man working beside you is Ted Bundy.“