Othello- HOME, Manchester

Writer: William Shakespeare

Director: Anthony Almeida

Typical: you wait ages for a Shakespearian production then two come along at the same time. Next week The Royal Exchange stages King Lear and tonight HOME hosts Othello.

The current production alters the period and setting of Othello’s story but retains the plot. Othello (Dwane Walcott), a respected solider, secretly marries Desdemona (Phoebe Smyth) who is above his social class. Deeply in love, Desdemona accompanies Othello when he is sent to a military outpost. Othello promotes Cassio (Will Stanton) which offends experienced soldier Iago (Maanuv Thiara) who believes he is more deserving of the honour. Iago becomes so enraged as to imagine Othello may have seduced his wife, Emilia (Rebecca Banatvala), and sets out to trick him into believing that Desdemona is unfaithful and having an affair with Cassio, setting in motion a sequence of tragic events.

Director Anthony Almeida moves the storyline to early 1980s Britain and the military conflict to the Falklands invasion. The Falklands conflict was memorably described by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges as a fight between two bald men over a comb. Director Almeida avoids the sense of military personnel caught up in a morally dodgy campaign and instead concentrates on the triumphant jingoism that ran through the UK at the time. This is captured very well in the boozy scene of an inebriated Cassio, who has a low tolerance for alcohol, losing his inhibitions and reputation; a sequence so seductive some members of the audience rise to their feet and dance along.

The contemporary approach is reflected also in Phoebe Smyth’s interpretation of  Desdemona less as weepy wronged wife and more someone willing to stand up for herself.

Advance publicity for the production suggests director Almeida does not regard jealously as the play’s major theme. Maanuv Thiara, who plays Iago, does not seem to share this opinion throwing himself into the ‘green-eyed monster’ speech with rare passion. Thiara removes any sense of redemption from Iago; he is not a solder offended because his merits have not been recognised but a devious manipulator seeking revenge for his own twisted reasons and all the more frightening because his motives are unclear even illogical.

In the original period and setting Othello’s race and, possibly, his religion make him an outsider from the community in which he resides.  Even when the story is updated to 1980s Britain Othello remains an outsider by virtue of his social class – an ordinary soldier who marries above his social station. The initial appearance of Dwane Walcott in a sharp wedding suit suggests ambition, as if Othello plans to move beyond the military possibly into politics. Walcott‘s mental deterioration is captured in excruciating close up by Erin Guan’s video designs which broadcast intimate images of the actor’s tormented face onto a screen at the rear of the stage.

There is, however, a curious lack of scale to the production. Scenes are staged as conversations between two characters with no-one else in attendance. Othello does not, therefore, experience the sense of being observed and judged by other people to fuel the paranoia which pushes him towards tragedy.  There are some misjudgements in the staging. Iago’s apparently casual remark ‘’ I like not that’’ which begins Othello’s slide into jealousy and madness could be overlooked being spoken at the rear of the stage rather than in clear view at the centre where the impact of the devious statement can be appreciated in full.

Revising the time and place of Othello helps to demonstrate the continuing thematic relevance of the importance of reputation and the corrosive impact of jealously. The static staging, however, limits the emotional impact of the play.

Runs until 10^th October, 2026