More, less and Wagnerian cowgirls SPOTLIGHT ON THE ARTS THEATER

General Othello, meet President Eisenhower. By setting Shakespeare's tragic tale of jealousy and betrayal in the 1950s, Center Stage artistic director Irene Lewis aligned the play with an era when bigotry was often taken for granted and when the Cold War could have left a military man like Iago at a loss. Stephen Markle's Iago was so chilling, however, he probably could have brought this scheming villain to life in any era.

Honey, I shrunk the play. Returning to the less-is-more theory, two Washington theaters performed masterful acts of concision. the Shakespeare Theatre, artistic director Michael Kahn abridged Shakespeare's two-part "Henry IV" into a single evening, using Part 2 to expand and illuminate Part 1's themes of loyalty, justice and responsibility. A few weeks later, Derek Walcott's "Odyssey" had its American premiere at Arena Stage. Walcott's West-Indian-flavored adaptation of Homer was as ancient as classical Greece and as modern as science fiction.

That old-fashioned feminism. Lest you think feminism is anything new, two of Baltimore's smaller companies resurrected some of the movement's older proponents. Theatre Hopkins did a fine job with Shaw's rarely produced "Mrs. Warren's Profession." And, at the Theatre Project, Mother Lode Theatre Company brought strong insight and ensemble work to "Emma," Howard Zinn's play about anarchist Emma Goldman.

Giggles and goose bumps. Finally, the smaller theaters displayed their range with comedies that made you laugh and tragedies that gave you the creeps. One actress proved adept at both. Darlene Deardorff was a hoot in the Vagabonds' "Born Yesterday" and in Fell's Point Corner's "Love and Anger." Her paranoid character in "Love and Anger," however, also had a scary edge. But when it came to creepiness, AXIS Theatre's "Eye of God" was in a class by itself. Skillfully directed by Brian Klaas, this psychological thriller was further evidence that suggestion can be more frightening than gore.