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The The Royal Shakespeare Company has cast Sharon D Clarke as the black lesbian Othello in the futuristic concept of the play which is said to show the 400-year-old story through “fast new glasses”.
Clarke, who is a three-time Olivier winner and has had West End and Broadway productions, brought the work to the RSC with a twist. Othello he will be portrayed as a black prostitute married to young Desdemona.
The actor said that his production reminds him Olivier’s performance in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, which also cast the Loman Jewish family as African American. “Everything happened,” he said of the game’s transition.
“The American dream became more visible because you could see the American dream and what was impossible for that family. I hope that through this lens and Othello, you will see things differently.”
Clarke added: “She likes to live in a male environment, so what does she do on a day-to-day basis?“
The RSC production will be set in the future, avoiding “the whole thing”, said Clarke, with the 15-year gap between Othello and Desdemona.
The RSC has made a history of previous productions and productions of Othello in the UK: Hugh Quarshie starred. the first black actor to play Iago at the RSC in 2015. But Clarke is not the first black British woman to play Othello as a gay woman.
Gemma Bodinetz’s 2018 production at Liverpool’s Everyman cast Bridgerton as a star Golda Rosheuvel as the sad old man. At the time, Bodinetz said it was a brave attempt to “make the game feel electric again”.
Monique Touko will be directing an RSC production that looks at Othello through the lens of misogynoir; made up words and gay black feminist American academic Moya Baileywho explained that “a special kind of hatred directed at black women“.
Clarke said she would share her own experiences of being gay, such as being told by family members that if you’re gay, “you’ll never work, you’ll never have a family and you’ll never be in love”.
“I’m going to incorporate that into him,” Clarke said. “He is a strong leader, but the weaknesses are still there.“
The production is part of an ambitious 2026-27 season at the RSC, which has seen a difficult 18 months and budget cuts that led to the decision to cut staff by 11% to avoid what artistic director Daniel Evans called “A dangerous situation“.
Old National Theater Artistic director Rufus Norris will make his RSC debut with a production of Brock’s Mill, from RSC writer-in-residence Stewart Pringle.
Two more productions have also been announced: a touring version of Blanche McIntyre’s Merry Wives of Windsor, and an early-age adaptation of David Litchfield’s children’s book The Bear and the Piano.
The RSC has also appointed Grammy award-winner Olivier and Tony Martin Lowe as composers, while Paula Stephens joins as vocalist and Emily Burns, Ryan Day and Elizabeth Freestone all join the company as directors.
“We want to make sure as many people as possible feel welcome at the RSC through the stories we choose to tell,” said Evans and his artistic director, Tamara Harvey. They added that “reviewing 400 historical documents using a new, fast-paced lens” was part of this.
