Three days have passed since Othello’s death and that of his beloved Desdamona and Iago sits in his cell awaiting execution. The only illumination comes from the barred cell window, through which streams the late afternoon light. In the shadows of the cell, Iago sits in thought, eyes gazing blankly at the bars of his cell. A guard stands watch by Iago’s cell and steps can be heard descending the stairs and Michael Cassio comes into view.
Cassio
Greetings Iago
Iago is silent
Cassio
[To the guard] Has he requested food or drink?
Guard
No my Lord. He has held his silence for these three days but out of spite or fear I cannot divine.
Cassio
[To the guard] Please take your leave.
Guard
My Lord [He bows and departs]
Cassio
The dawn light nears and the noose awaits you but yet you do not plead or beg for mercy and instead hold your tongue. Do you have no one to call to, or has the monsters left your side and the devil stolen back his silver tongue? Speak!
Iago
I would speak, if it profited me to but what does talk do but distract the mind from the fate that will come with the setting of the sun?
Cassio
It would profit your soul to reconcile your deeds to heaven and grace and to mend some of your reputation through remorse. Your false guises have been stripped away and your heel exposed.
Iago
Closed for me are the gates of the Honoured Dead, my soul shall be hung from the gallows of the World Tree until I wither and fall to feed the worms at its roots. I a remorseful only in knowing I shall not share the fate of our Valiant Moor who was saved from the field by his Alabaster Valkyrie.
Cassio
Iago do not mistake my reason for my visit. I did not come to jest or to mock but offer you a pardon, a life should not be wasted that still serves some purpose.
Iago
Is your head hollow or has drink dulled your brains? In your own words I have lost my guises and stand naked in the wind, fair game for those who seek he who poisoned the love of the Old Ram and his Ewe.
Cassio
I am ashamed to say my love for you as a brother did not allow me to see the serpent that hid underneath, I may have saved them from the fruit that bore false knowledge. I see know my act of love is in vain.
Iago
You speak of love but yet you cannot understand it until you have felt jealousy. Our Lord accepts your gift and yet rejects mine and yet you wonder of how I could feel such anger toward you. Was the Shepard’s gift less deserving than that of his brother?
Cassio
I do not understand your feeling but I understand that this jealousy that you harbour only brings destruction and pain. These things I understand.
[Enter the guard with two soldiers holding swords]
Guard
My Lord, it is time.
Iago is taken from his cell, by the guard with the two soldiers behind and Cassio following. He is taken into the court yard where the sun is setting and long shadows stretch from the walls and a sea wind blows from the west. A small crowd has gathered in front of the scaffold where a single rope hangs. He is lead onto the platform. Cassio stands at the back of the platform to left.
[The noose is secured to his neck]
Iago
[To Cassio] Before I depart I will have my word.
Cassio
I shall allow no further lies Iago, nor shall the names of the departed be blackened by your word.
Iago
Then I shall speak plainly. I confess no remorse or deny the actions charged against me but my motives I must express. How can a man say he can truly love if he turns upon that love in jealousy or how can a man who knows only jealousy ever truly love those that are his better. Can anyone who has not felt such raw emotions understand? I think not. These are the choices I have made and what choices a man makes is in turn what makes him and these choices fall into the endless cycle of the world. All of the world’s a stage and every man must play his part as I have played mine.
