“Hamilton” star Giles Terera leads historian “Othello”; The production marks the first time a black director stages the show at the National Theater

Exclusive: Giles Terera (The death of England: face to face), winner of the Olivier Award for his portrayal of Aaron Burr on the Broadway hit London. hamilton, will star in the historical comedy of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, With Rosie McEwen, who gained recognition in the second season. alien, like Desdemona.

The show will be staged at the UK’s National Theater by Clint Dyer, marking the first time a play by a black man has been performed in a UK venue. American-born Shakespeare scholar Dr Jamie Rogers hailed the result as “an important milestone in the history of British Shakespeare.”

Rogers told Deadline: “This means that the white lens through which the work has almost always been seen will be questioned.”

The show, about a man who rose from slavery to become a respected military leader and black ambassador who married the white daughter of a powerful Venetian senator, opens on stage at the National’s Lyttelton on November 23 and runs until January 21.

National Theater NT Live digital broadcast channel Othello In theaters around the world in 2023. Dyer said he was thrilled to be shooting on stage.

He told us: “I want it to be exciting, like a cinematic experience. I don’t want it to be celebrated in the form of an old-fashioned theater. I hope to have a greater impact by using other techniques, such as video screens, instead of just using words. “

paint (Their), who directed Terera in last year’s NT film production The death of England: face to faceEighteen months ago he was appointed deputy art director of NT. Past versions with name Othello “Suspicious” in terms of the racial dynamics of the white actors chosen as black to play the title character.

Dyer added that production Othello, Set up at the UK’s Premier Theater, starring a black cast and directed by a black man, as “a radical change in ideology, something huge. A black man conducting Shakespeare at the National is a huge thing! “

Dyer’s point of view is that those white directors from previous studios Othello “I didn’t feel comfortable being able to express the experience of black through the piece, so they just avoided it. And for a nation run by a black man through a black lens … it’s unbelievable. “

A production starring Paul Hilton (Slow Horses) as Othello’s nemesis Iago would correct the imbalance in many earlier versions, which seemed to draw more attention to the crafty Iago. His name is not Iago. OthelloDyer argued.

He was furious with the famous 1990 production directed by Trevor Nunn for the Royal Shakespeare Company, with the great baritone and actor Willard White as Moore and Ian McKellen as Iago. There is also a video version of it. Dyer told Deadline: “I’ve seen it and Ian McKellen is fantastic, there’s no way around it, but my feeling is that we can enjoy this performance more easily than Othello.”

According to the theatrical artist, the representations of Nani and others “are all victims of the same conscious and subconscious prejudices, which means that they are not. [racism] at the top of your agenda. I experience racism every day, so it’s definitely on my agenda. This is obviously special to me. All I’m trying to do is start a conversation so that I can move on from these conversations, not go back. “

Dyer, however, said his complaint is not “necessarily that I try to explain or undo the plays I’ve made before,” although he said he witnessed the plays. Othello where “the public laughed at outrageous racism. I laughed like it was a comedy. “

Dyer somehow uses those past performances of the work to understand “why, when and how we saw this piece. I want to try to articulate an experience that speaks to the experience of blacks, but that also really speaks to the experience of whites. “

Over the years, Dyer said, he has often been concerned with the world in which other directors have created their works. Othello “That’s why this negro is placed in this position, at the head of the Venetian army, and everyone is happy.”

Proving such a premise, Dyer exclaimed, “Bring me this world, because when it comes to racing, people don’t give it the respect it deserves.”

Shakespeare, even when writing in the early 16th century, knew exactly what he was talking about when he came to power “where men will go to great lengths to feel stronger than they are different, and that includes women, because it’s an opera. childhood theatrical, ”Dyer said.

Terrera, actor, writer and singer, told us he is interested in exploring comedy from Othello’s point of view. “This is a man who was born in Africa, he came to Europe and excels in his life and in the profession he has chosen. His sense of who he is, I think, is very strong. Obviously, he lives in a white world and tries to navigate everything. “

The actor noted that prominent people of color “whether they are in the entertainment industry or in sports, are judged differently than their white counterparts.”

Othello is also a prominent figure and Terrera needed to explore him from a black perspective, different from the white perspective she had been taught in school and in previous productions.

“When there is an OJ Simpson, a Will Smith or anyone else, they are looked at in a particular way, often with eyes that are not of their culture. So Michael Jackson can somehow answer that he makes sense to me, but he doesn’t make sense to the media. This is not to forgive or forgive whatever his behavior was, but at least you can understand it when you are of the same culture. From my point of view as an actor, I have to understand where the character is. [Othello] is coming.”

Terrera was surprised how Shakespeare, writing five centuries earlier, understood the nature of racism.

The comedy begins with Iago and another character trying to mess up Desdemona’s father by claiming that the Moor has stolen his daughter, which is not true. Iago misses the point, “so Iago introduces racism,” Terra explained.

“He says to his father: ‘The old black ram is prodding your white sheep.'” From then on, Iago uses racism to get what he needs from people, which is to bring down Othello. To me, this is very revealing. now, when it comes to Brexit, Donald Trump, on the other hand, some parties are using racism and bigotry to achieve their goals, “Terrera said.

Another topic discussed by the cast and creatives is the nature of the relationship between Othello and Desdemona. “It can’t just be physical, sexual, sensual. I think they see something in each other that speaks to a much higher plane. The nature of your relationship should be very clear. [in this production] Because many times we think of black men in a too stylized way and we tend to think of black men, or society, only in a sexual way, ”Terrera explained.

“Their connection is on many levels,” he said. They are very specific about who everyone wants to be with, she added.

Rogers is Shakespeare’s multicultural honorary member at the University of Warwick. He regularly collaborates with the Sir Lenny Henry Center for Media Diversity on diversity on television and is the author, recently published in the UK and US, of British and Asian Black Shakespeare: Integration of Shakespeare, 1966-2018

He noted that, over the years, other Afro-Caribbean people have directed the show, albeit in much smaller venues. The National Theater is regarded as Britain’s flagship theater.

The blacks who drove Othello Britain includes Joseph Marcel (The Prince of Bel Air); and in Hugh’s quarry (Star Wars: Episode 1 – Ghost Menace), who co-directed a lesser-known production with Sue Dunderdale, who according to Rogers was at London’s Greenwich Theater in 1989 because she had the first black couple between Othello and Iago, played by Clarke Peters (cable) and Paul Barber (Full Monty), Respectively.

Dyer’s creative team is working Othello Includes Chloe Lumford, decorator; Michael Weil costume; Signed with Jai Morjaria as a lighting designer. Pete Malkin is the musical director; sound designer for Benjamin Grant; with Lucy Pankhurst as director of the movement. Kev McCurdy is the fight director.