notes on othello (venice biennale, 2003)

Iago's credo

Black!
Black!
Black!
Black!
String them like beads(cut the scalp remove the wig)
Knots on a thread
no one has this power(pull the eyes one by one)
I am your servant o blackest one!
I crave your cunning!(take each ear, no tone)
Black!
Twist their heads(peel the skin from the skull)
Burn their hearts in unseen flame,
I serve only thee, who's greatest(wash the blood, bone white)
Illusion is their god, their nailed one.
Black!
I crave thy subtle tact, the only might!(give the throat to the dogs)
Thy skill at timeless torture,
Thy countless veils of deceit,(wash the hands, I witness)
Thy sacred loneliness,
Thy mysterious friendship!(chop each limb at the joint)
Black!
You are all shadows,
The blackest shadow of God.(cleave the chests, precise)
And they shall bear no progeny.
Father of all demons,(the black cello is crying)
Their blood shall be curdled.
Black!
I am your agent feigning honesty,(relieve the sorrow, now)
Modesty and humility, at their gallows.
You, whose flesh is made of starless night,(slice the hearts' arteries)
They shall remain a family of two,
She suffocates in his filthy soot(remove the pointless lump)
And he, drowned in the white of her milk.
Black!
String them like beads,(listen closely, to the hiss)
Knots on a thread,
Twist their heads!(shhhhh! shhhh! shhh!)
Black!
Black!
Black!
Black!

NOTE
This is done in many voices. It is in Iago's head.