IN this staging of Shakespeare’s play, Princeton University student Jackie Bello presents her senior creative thesis production for the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Theater and Dance. The play has fascinated her since she first saw it as a child.

   ”The complicated relationships among the four main characters (Othello, Iago, Desdemona and Emilia) and the motivations behind their actions have haunted me ever since,” she writes in a press release. “Why does Iago hate Othello so much? Why didn’t Emilia say something about the handkerchief sooner? Why would Othello kill this innocent woman he loved so much?! As a director, I want to tackle these questions onstage.”

   As with most of Shakespeare’s work, this play continues to resonate with audiences precisely because the characters’ motivations get at the heart of so much human emotion: love, resentment, jealousy, pride, not to mention the added dimension of race. And depending on which way the glass is turned, one or another may be front and center.

   The source for Shakespeare’s plot, the Italian Cincio’s “Un Capitano Moro,” is a morality tale with a message simply stated: European women shouldn’t marry hot-tempered Moors. Or as Disdemona says to her husband in a 19th-century English translation, “Nay, but you Moors are of so hot a nature that every little trifle moves you to anger and revenge.”

   In Cincio’s telling, the ensign is a wicked aide whose unrequited love for Disdemona spurs him to conceive a plot. To discredit her, he convinces the Moor that she has fallen in love with a captain, which the ensign himself believes. Events tumble out of hand in a series of murders and revenge killings, all of which are just retributions.

   Shakespeare’s characterizations are much more complicated. Actions are open to interpretation. Although his plot is more or less faithful to Cincio’s, the motivations are quite different. Iago, General Othello’s ensign, is angered because he has been passed over by Cassio. His hatred for Othello, which seems out of proportion, is so enflamed that he devises a complicated plot. It centers on convincing the Moor that his wife, Desdemona, has been unfaithful to him, with Cassio. Unlike Cincio’s tale, where the ensign is involved in killing the Moor’s wife, Othello alone murders Desdemona. And rather than being killed by vengeful Venetians, Othello stabs himself out of self-loathing when the trickery is revealed.

   This is ostensibly a play about the tragic crumbling of the noble Othello. But it is even more about the deviousness of Iago, who has more scenes than the title character. In the intimate space of the Matthews Acting Studio, Iago, played with fiendish glee by Shawn Fennell, gets up close. His asides are like addresses to a game-show audience as he plots the fun of his next trick. Iago here is an almost clownish figure whose trickery depends on the guilelessness of his victims. Fennell draws the laughs, as does the messenger, played with Monty Pythonesque humor by David Holtz.

   Bello has found fun where it can be had. The sword-fights, choreographed by Lisa Kopitsky, are worthy of an Errol Flynn swashbuckler. Everyone has a knife in a hip pocket, it seems. Seldom has so much cutlery been drawn for so little provocation.

   Kelvin Dinkins Jr., as Othello, transforms from day to night. Dinkins projects Shakespeare’s poetry with great authority. His rich and sonorous vocal range gives his rages and his rueful moans an affecting depth. Desdemona’s innocent purity is embodied in Laura Hankin, whose lovely soprano enhances the character. She is also terrifyingly good at being strangled.

   As for Emilia, Desdemona’s confidante, Dominique Salerno keeps things taut even when not speaking. Her relatively brief stage appearances are nevertheless important in maintaining that dramatic tension. Why, indeed, didn’t Emilia tell what she knows about that handkerchief a lot sooner?

   The rest of the cast ably supports these main characters in driving the action forward. At more than two-and-a-half hours, the play seems to fly by. The rich costume designs by Anya Klepikov stand out against the spare but elegant settings designed by Yoki Lai. The unfurling of the final bedroom scene is especially clever and dramatic.

   In this ageless work, the audience still has a lot to chew on, because the answers aren’t simple. Even Bello, who would like to find the answers, must know that vitality depends on there always being room for more questions.

   And what of today? Who hasn’t been suckered into doing something they regretted afterward? Reading today’s headlines and considering the scale, I think Shakespeare would feel right at home in the 21st century.

Othello continue at the Marie and Edward Matthews ‘53 Acting Studio, Lewis Center for the Arts, 185 Nassau St., Princeton, Feb. 12-14, 8 p.m. Tickets cost $10, $8 students; (609) 258-9220.