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Actor David Harewood has history with Shakespeare’s tragedy of race and jealousy Othello: as a much younger man, way back in 1997, he became the first Black actor ever to play the doomed Moorish general at the National Theatre.
And now he’s doing it again: this autumn Harewood will reprise the role in a new production by War Horse director Tom Morris that will cast Toby Jone as his nemesis Iago and US actor Caitlin FitzGerald as his wife Desdemona. There will also be music from indie icon and prolific theatre composer PJ Harvey.
Quoth Harewood: ‘It’s very exciting to be tackling this monumental part once again. Last time around I was very conscious of breaking through a particular glass ceiling and I probably felt the weight of that. No concerns this time and I’m looking forward to starting afresh.’
Othello has been in the news thanks to the Americans: the play is relatively rarely done Stateside and this year has seen a big Broadway revival starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal that attracted lots of attention but tepid notices, exacerbated by general irritation at the $3,000-plus cost of the top tickets
Morris’s production won’t attract a tenth of the hype, but there are good odds it’ll be considerably better: Harewood scored great notices first time out and has remained a fine stage and screen actor, last seen in the West End in James Graham’s excellent Best of Enemies. Morris is an excellent director who London has seen little of in the decade he spent running the Bristol Old Vic. But in some ways Jones is the most exciting part of all this – a much loved actor of considerable depth, he’s never really tackled a big classical role before, but you sense he has the subtlety and ability to shift between light and dark to really make something of arguably Shakespeare’s greatest villain role.
The modern dress take is set to be the first instalment in a series of contemporary Shakespeare productions created by Morris for Chris Harper Productions in the West End over the next five years.
Othello is at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, Oct 23-Jan 17. Tickets go on sale May 23.
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