REVIEW: Othello, Sam Wannamaker Playhouse ✭✭✭

Othello at Sam Wannamaker Playhouse

Ellen McDougall’s Othello is a very solid production, with excellent performances and a number of intriguing original motifs. Whilst these did not all work for me, mileage will vary between audience members, and the production’s many strengths and the excellent venue means it is to be recommended.

Frantic Assembly Present Othello at Lyric Hammersmith

Kirsty Oswald and Mark Ebulue in Frantic Assembly's Othello. Photo: Manuel Harlan

Frantic Assembly’s acclaimed and award-winning Othello  will explode onto the stage of London’s Lyric Hammersmith following its UK tour. Set against the backdrop of Yorkshire during the race riots of 2001, Artistic Director Scott Graham has bought a fresh take to Shakespeare’s timeless story of paranoia, jealousy, sex and murder. Fusing a taut adaptation of the classic text with its trademark hard-hitting choreography, Frantic Assembly takes a scalpel to 21st century Britain, exposing prejudice, danger and fear. The Yorkshire race riots of 2001 were a time of terrible divisions and some unexpected alliances. Othello’s passionate affair with Desdemona leaves him open to jealousy and attack – with devastating consequences. Violence is a way of life and reputation is everything… Mark Ebulue, recently of the RSC and a former kickboxer, plays Othello. Steven Miller, known for his four-year stint as Lenny Lyons in Casualty (BBC TV) plays Iago, with Kirsty Oswald … Read more

INTERVIEW: Declan Donnellan

Declan Donnellan

“Is there a little bit of Ubu Roi in all of us?” Emily Hardy asks acclaimed theatre director Declan Donnellan. It was an interview that started like any other Declan Donnellan and I exchange pleasantries and begin, as intended, by discussing Cheek by Jowl’s touring production of Ubu Roi, directed by Donnellan and designed by company co-founder, Nick Ormerod. Alfred Jarry’s 1896 brutal satire comes to the Barbican in April as part of Dancing around Duchamp, a season celebrating Marcel Duchamp’s influence on artists of the 20th Century. Featured is the work of Duchamp’s predecessors, his collaborators and those who continued his radical legacy, safe in the hands of leading contemporary artists. It comes as no surprise that Cheek by Jowl, who, in my opinion, represent the country’s theatrical achievements internationally like a premiership football team, have their own contribution to make. “This production of Ubu grew out of a performance … Read more