So if it makes your mouth water to hear that Lantern Theater's Charles McMahon has plucked two Philly favorites - Frank X and Peter Pryor - to fill the roles in the current production of Othello, you should also know you're in good company. The run was extended before the show even officially opened.

Both actors have previously taken on Shakespeare at Lantern in Barrymore-worthy turns: X was nominated for the award for his portrayal of King Lear, and Pryor won it for his Richard III.

So surprise, surprise, the pair tear up the stage like the pros they are. Pryor has a blast from his opening sneer to his final psychopathic chuckle, when ordered to behold the bloody mess he's caused. His scenes with Anthony Lawton's Roderigo are a veritable bottom-feeder's buffet, Iago's arrogance and ambition devouring Roderigo's credulity, bones and all.

And X's transformation from honorable general to befouled murderer is chill-inducing; those enormous and enormously expressive eyes hold emotions that plunge fathoms deep.

What's missing from the production is a sense that Iago has coaxed Othello to join him in the muck.

Instead, McMahon has Pryor bully X until he collapses, unable to withstand the barrage of evidence against his innocent wife Desdemona (played by Mary McCool, whose lazy elocution - "Uh-thello," she calls him - puts her a step behind her able castmates). The trouble with this strongarm approach is X's own strength as Othello. He just doesn't seem ready to give in, and a bit more subtlety would have gone a long way.

However, McMahon allows just the right amount of subtlety between Iago and his long-suffering wife, Emilia (Sarah Sanford). Watching Pryor reject Sanford, as her hopes for a moment of kindness from him are dashed, is like excavating a treasure from beneath the play's surface; it's the great untold story within this story. Though Sanford's monologue about men's motives doesn't quite live up to what's been promised in these brief moments, we get the picture: Emilia has endured a life of matrimonial pain and gently welcomes Desdemona into the fold.

Lantern's Othello may not be uniformly taut, but it's "passing strange," all right. Even if Pryor and X never meet in the middle, watching these two forceful performers go toe-to-toe brings enough meat to the table to satisfy all those watering mouths in the audience.

Othello

Through May 4 at Lantern Theater, 10th and Ludlow Streets, Philadelphia. Tickets $15 to $35. Information: 215-829-0395 or www.LanternTheater.org.