Othello
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Stratford-upon-Avon
4/5

EVERY age discovers its own Shakespeare and each new director seeks to find an innovative take on the great tragedies. If at first sight Iqbal Khan’s idea to have a black actor play Iago might smack of gimmickry, the reality is that we see the play anew.

Despite the classic criticism of “motiveless malignity,” Iago’s determination to destroy his commander has, in modern times, always been related to racism.

“Even now…an old black ram is topping your white ewe,” he warns Desdemona’s father of his daughter’s relationship with Othello. Lucian Msamati’s Iago is as aware of the Venetian state’s institutional racism as much, if not more, than Hugh Quarshie’s protagonist.

The Zimbabwean actor plays the villain with charismatic energy as he controls the action like a waggish puppeteer, seeding the jealousy that will destroy his target.

At times there is a sense on his part of a love-hate relationship with Othello, coupled with resentment at his expedient acceptance by the white Establishment in a multi-racial society.

Quarshie, straddling two cultures, is full of confidence in his military authority yet bowled over by the high-spirited youthful naivety of Joanna Vanderham’s Desdemona. He’s a vulnerable victim.

Khan’s production is a gritty and nuanced portrayal which, never aiming for operatic high notes, impacts through moments of revelatory tension — as when Iago freezes fleetingly as his stooge, James Corrigan’s Roderigo, refers to “thick lips” and again when Othello’s lieutenant, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd’s insensitively brittle Cassio, drunkenly dismisses his tonal African singing.

In a brutal society, where Abu Ghraib-style treatment is meted out to dissidents, Iago’s psychological cruelty is mirrored in the demented Othello torturing his subtle tormentor with a claw hammer, demanding absolute proof of Desdemona’s infidelity.

The play is Othello’s tragedy but Iago’s play, some critics contend.

But in Khan’s tailored production two fine performances provide a splendid balance which poses many many more questions than traditional treatments.

Runs until August 28, box office: rsc.org.uk