Bare Theatre has distinguished itself for Shakespeare productions that quickly root out each tale's emotional core and keep it at the forefront all night long.

If Shakespeare plays elude you -- with their myriad characters and their dense and poetic text -- Bare's Shakespeare likely won't.

Take director Carmen-maria Mandley's "Othello," which closes its two-weekend run tonight at the Holly Springs Cultural Center. Within minutes, there's no question who's in love, who's enraged, who's going to get burned and who's going to light the match.

The cast is strong and their characters' motivations consistently clear, from Byron Jennings' mounting doubt and jealousy in the title role to Rebecca Blum's contradictory Emilia, Seth Blum's sleazy Iago, Heather J. Hackford's doomed Desdemona and Tara Pozo's fascinating clown. Live percussion adds to the mounting tension.

In typical Bare fashion, the production offers little in the way of sets -- a riser here, a bench there. Mandley wisely concerns herself less with charting the play's geography than with navigating its tragic emotional path. With her direction, you'll have no trouble finding your way.