Othello
4-29 October 2023, RIVERSIDE STUDIOS HAMMERSMITH
Featuring Martins Imhangbe as Othello
Whats On Stage Awards Nominee -- Best Off West End Production
Offies Awards Nominee -- Best Performance Ensemble
'The concept of three Iagos is truly inspired. It offers more nuanced understandings of the challenges facing Othello that are so often missed.'
Tony Phillips, Executive Producer, New York Public Radio, BBC Radio 4
'Fascinating, brilliant and innovative.'
Alison Grist, Producer & Director (BBC, ITV, SkyArts)
'An electrifying, fresh, once-in-a-generation take on Othello.'
Edward Morgan, Northern Town Productions
'An Iago both confident, prideful, scheming and yet guilty, wracked, interrogating his own actions and the decisions that set him on his path of wreckage. A fresh approach full of life and vigour.'
Michelle Tofi, Director, BYOC Films
'Watching the sound being made and the space re-configured in such a pared down way is fascinating. Absolutely thrilling.'
Will Edwards, Director of Photography
Othello is a play against racism, and spectacularly so in this rendition... Few productions have taken us so deeply inside both [Othello's] soul and that of his “damn’d Iago”.
Mark Lawson, The Tablet
‘Bold and fiercely tense... you hang onto the edge of your seat.’
*****Broadway World
‘A fascinating production.’
**** The Arts Desk
‘One of the most inspired Shakespeare adaptations... a must see!’
‘In a word, stunning.’
‘Refreshingly raw.’
****TheStage
‘Awe-inspiring portrayal of Iago by Fox, James and Neumark Jones.’
****Everything Theatre
‘Martins Imhangbe delivers an outstanding portrayal.’
****Afridiziak
‘A thrillingly innovative approach... Rose Riley shines.’
****Adventures in Theatreland
‘Quick-fire and vibrant.’
****Spy in the Stalls
This heightened reimagining of Othello activates the character of Iago as an ensemble of three actors: a contagion that infects Othello’s imagination and surrounds him from all sides. This shape-shifting Iago switches between a public and private ‘face’; different parts of his personality work as a team to confound and disorient their targets. Othello's mind is manipulated by a chorus of voices that he starts to hear everywhere, as if it's literally poisoning the atmosphere.
One of our aims is to disrupt the usual ‘virtuosic’ complicity Iago has with the audience and accord it to Othello.
An ensemble production working with the Michael Chekhov acting technique.
Original live music by Michael Fox, sound design by Ali Taie and set/costume by Natalie Pryce.
We're influenced by the work of philosopher-psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin, who thinks of psychology as made up of different parts or roles, in almost the theatrical sense of the term. We’ve drawn inspiration from literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin’s idea of the dialogic imagination as well as from several significant contemporary rewrites of the play: Toni Morrison’s Desdemona, Tracy Chevalier’s New Boy and Nicole Galland’s I, Iago. The feedback is a response to a public sharing of ideas in January 2023, funded by Arts Council England.
Direction: Sinéad Rushe.
Collaborators: Martins Imhangbe (Othello), Rose Riley (Desdemona), Michael Fox (Iago), Orlando James (Iago), Jeremy Neumark Jones (Iago), Ryan O'Doherty (Cassio/Brabantio), Rachel Leah Hosker (Emilia/Roderigo).
Producer: Trish Wadley.
Filming: Michael David McKernan. Qi Chang (R&D).
Production photos: Mark Douet.
FUNDED BY: Grants for the Arts, Arts Council England.
SUPPORTED BY: London Performance Studios, Central School of Speech and Drama, London.
