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SHAKESPEARE’S plays change with time, as proven by the current production of Othello at the Lyttelton Theatre. In 1964, when Laurence Olivier adopted black make-up to perform the title role, the play became about the tragic downfall of a self-dramatising hero. Now, in Clint Dyer’s new production, it is more about the racism and misogyny within society that dooms both Othello and Desdemona. The result is a compelling night at the theatre, even if Mr Dyer sometimes twists the text to prove his point.
Let me state my reservations. In the war-council scene, the Duke of Venice pointedly refuses to shake Othello by the hand, despite the text indicating his sympathy with the Moor (‘I think this tale would win my daughter too,’ he says after Othello’s account of his wooing of Desdemona).
Iago, when he alone plots Othello’s destruction, is accompanied by a silent chorus of Fascist sympathisers, which suggests the play is about communal, rather