“Othello” on Two Wheels at the Milwaukee Rep

Mark Clements, artistic director of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, has owned motorcycles all his life. Except right now. A new baby will do that. Kelley Faulkner, now appearing as Patsy Cline at the Rep, is Clements’ life partner and mom of Amelie June, born in September.

“Kelley is not enamored of the idea of me on a motorcycle,” Clements admitted.

Still, in Harley-Davidson’s home town, Clements can window shop. And he can cast motorcycles in a play — Shakespeare’s Othello, say.

“Thousands of dollars worth of bikes will be on stage,” Clements said, when the Rep opens Othello at the Powerhouse Friday night, April 6. The show is up in previews Tuesday through Thursday.

“They let us into the bowels of the Harley plant to cherry-pick bikes for the show,” Clements said. “My hands were clammy and the adrenaline was pumping. Harley’s generosity has been beyond all expectations. They took us in and said, ‘What do you want?’ I was like an 8-year-old in Toys R Us.”

Clements conceived of Othello and his army as a hierarchical motorcycle gang more than 20 years ago, long before he imagined moving to Milwaukee. It struck him as a natural fit. We tend to think of the Venetian armed force Othello leads to defend Venice’s holding on the island of Cyprus as something like a modern army. Not in those days.

“It’s like a private army,” Clements said. “A band of merceneries.”

That is, like a gang — with all its attendant codes and internal rivalries. A storm destroys the invading Turkish fleet before Othello’s men bloody a spear. With no external enemy, the internal feuds boil up.

“It’s not that difficult a shift [from the 16th century),” Clements said. “Shakespeare wrote it 400 years ago, but it’s timeless. It’s about the interactions of human beings. I’m not wedded to doing it in the modern context — I can see myself doing a very traditional Othello some time. The goal is always to make it breathe and make it feel brand new. Even if you know the ending, I want you to feel that maybe, somehow, this will be different.”

Clement is a rugged guy. He played rugby growing up in England and raced motorcycles for five years as a young man. He has never aspired to motorcycle gang life, but it has always interested him. He’s studied up, and he’s an avid viewer of Sons of Anarchy, a scarily realistic FX series about such a criminal gang. Clement has encouraged his actors to watch it.

“Allegiance to the patch stands above everything,” Clements said. “They’re very organized. It’s tough to get in and even tougher to get out.”

Clements sees obvious parallels in Othello’s Venetians to the Sons of Anarchy. Imagine your gang leader picks someone weaker, less committed, less serious than you to be his right-hand man. Would you resent it? Would you plot to bring them both down? Would you probe them for weaknesses and leverage the weaknesses? Iago does.

“Iago is not a two-dimensional character,” Clements said. “He’s angry for good reason. He thinks he should have gotten that job.” Certainly not that flatterer and playboy, Michael Cassio.

Love, of the depth that Othello holds for Desdemona, would be a weakness in this context, in which women are often treated as property. Iago uses that love against his leader.

“Othello is inexperienced in relationships, and that’s why jealousy can turn him,” Clements said. “The way men are with women in these gangs makes them second-class citizens. The women subscribe to it, mostly willingly. Many of the members are ex-military, they’ve been trained to fight and kill. And usually gangs are not mixed-race. Those are commonalities.”

No matter how strong or powerful, a black man atop a mostly white motorcycle gang would wear his crown uneasily. Othello is black, and Iago can exploit that, too.

Clements and his design team — the same crew that gave us the spectacular Cabaret in 2010 — set the piece somewhere in a generic America. A gang in Russia inspired their regalia. While they have displaced Othello in time and geography, they have not changed up the story or the language. (By coincidence, Ralph Fiennes’ similar update to Shakespeare’s Coriolanus is now in movie theaters and well worth seeing.)

“We honor the language,” Clements said, noting that every word is from Shakespeare.

Despite the evil behavior and violence in the play, the language is beautiful — as a Harley is beautiful, even beneath a criminal.

“I see them as works of art,” Clements said. “One passes in the street and I pause and look. I would have one in my house, like a painting or a sculpture.

“This is the longest period that I haven’t had I bike — I’ve often had two. You see the world from a different perspective on a bike. You have to be aware, not complacent. It’s not risk-free, and that’s what makes it exciting. I will get one. I’m a good rider.”

OK Mark. But I’m not the one you have to convince.

Cast and Credits: Brabantio/Montano, Lee E. Ernst; Bianca/Ensemble, Melissa Graves; Desdemona, Mattie Hawkinson; Lodovico, Michael M. Kroeker; Michael Cassio, Reese Madigan; Iago, Gerard Neugent; Herald, Alexander Pawlowski IV; Duke of Venice, James Pickering; Othello, Lindsay Smiling; Emilia, Deborah Staples; Roderigo, Jonathan Wainwright. Creative Team: Playwright: William Shakespeare; Director: Mark Clements; Set & Costume Design: Todd Edward Ivins; Lighting Design: Jeff Nellis; Original Music/Sound Design Barry G. Funderburg; Text/Vocal Coach Gale Childs Daly.

Show and Ticket Info: Performances run April 6 through May 6 (previews April 3, 4 and 5), with shows at 7:30 p.m. weeknights, 8 p.m. Fridays, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets range from $10 to $65, and can be purchased at the Rep’s box office or (414) 229-9490.