Dr Peter Kirwan

Tag: Othello

  • The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] (Again) (American Shakespeare Center) @ The Blackfriars Playhouse

    The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] (Again) (American Shakespeare Center) @ The Blackfriars Playhouse

    Every now and again, I’ve been lucky to see a revival of an existing play that makes that play feel freshly written, as if designed for that company and that moment. The reworking of Death of a Salesman for an African American family; Theatre Wallay’s reworking of The Taming of the Shrew as a commentary…

  • Othello (National Theatre) @ The Lyttleton Theatre

    Othello (National Theatre) @ The Lyttleton Theatre

    One of the many issues that Othello presents to a company is the structural imbalance around direct address which sees Iago given a relatively huge proportion of stage time to address the audience directly and develop – willing or unwitting – complicity between himself and the theatre audience. The much-discussed issue this generates is the…

  • Jubal (film)

    Jubal (film)

    What happens to Othello if Desdemona is actually trying to get into bed with Cassio? This is at the heart of Russell S. Hughes and director Delmer Daves’s screenplay for Jubal, a (very) loose appropriation of elements of Shakespeare’s play, mapped onto a classic Western structure. But by centering the story on the Cassio figure…

  • Nothello @ Belgrade Theatre

    Nothello @ Belgrade Theatre

    ‘More effing M-words’ shouted out a disgruntled audience member during the closing scene of Othello, reacting to Emilia yet again referring to Othello as ‘The Moor’. ‘He’s got a name!’ the young man shouted. A steward attempted to intervene: ‘That’s enough.’ ‘I agree!’ countered the heckler. ‘You’re ruining it for everyone else’, the steward admonished him.…

  • Mugen-Noh Othello @ Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre (archival recording)

    Mugen-Noh Othello @ Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre (archival recording)

    Some fifty years after the events of Othello, a wandering traveller called Waki arrives in Cyprus, which is now back under Turkish control. By beginning this Mugen-Noh rendition of the tragedy at a point when the deaths of Othello, Desdemona and the rest are almost out of living memory, director Miyagi Satoshi adds a further dimension to the…

  • American Moor (Red Bull Theater) (live-stream)

    American Moor (Red Bull Theater) (live-stream)

    I’ve had the pleasure already of reading and loving Keith Hamilton Cobb’s American Moor, but the opportunity to see the man himself perform the play via Zoom is too fantastic a one to pass up. In the space of digital theatre, a play that is so concerned with presence and gaze and disparities of experience might have…

  • Emilia @ Shakespeare’s Globe

    Emilia @ Shakespeare’s Globe

    All summer, the Globe has been playing fast and loose with the meaningfulness of the name ‘Emilia’ recurring in three of this season’s plays (Othello, The Winter’s Tale, The Two Noble Kinsmen). Along with implying that audiences can ‘follow’ the character through the plays (thankfully, the individual productions made no attempt to force the connection),…

  • Othello @ Shakespeare’s Globe

    Othello @ Shakespeare’s Globe

    A lot of the commentary around Claire van Kampen’s new production of Othello at the Globe has concerned the laughter being aroused by the production; and, as ever, this commentary roughly takes two different angles. Is the laughter part of a company strategy that is deliberately mining the comedy in the play? Or are the Globe audience responding ‘inappropriately’,…

  • Othello (Everyman Company) @ Liverpool Everyman

    Othello (Everyman Company) @ Liverpool Everyman

    Liverpool Everyman’s repertory company’s second season brings together a single ensemble for a wonderfully eclectic group of plays – including A Clockwork Orange, Paint Your Wagon and The Big I Am. Othello, perhaps surprisingly, was the smallest scale of the three productions, performed by only eight of the ensemble in the round on a relatively bare stage. Gemma Bodinetz’s production focused on…

  • Othello (Shakespeare Theatre Company) @ Sidney Harman Hall

    Othello (Shakespeare Theatre Company) @ Sidney Harman Hall

    Much has been made of the casting of an actor of Pakistani descent, Faran Tahir, as a Muslim Othello in Shakespeare Theatre Company’s new production. Artistic Director Michael Kahn, in the production’s programme, suggests that this is a first for the company, and draws specifically on the fallout in the Middle East following the collapse of the…