Cast for Othello tour confirmed

Casting has been announced for Othello, which will tour the UK this autumn in a new production directed by Anthony Almeida.

The poduction will opening at Northern Stage before visiting Manchester, Northampton, Mold, Glasgow, Derby and Peterborough.

The co-production between Northern Stage, HOME Manchester and the Citizens Theatre, in association with Royal and Derngate, runs in Newcastle from 11 to 26 September, with a press night on 16 September, before embarking on its tour.

Now set in Britain during the early 1980s against the backdrop of the Falklands War, Almeida’s production relocates Shakespeare’s tragedy to an isolated military outpost.

Dwane Walcott will play the title role opposite Maanuv Thiara as Iago. Phoebe Smyth, making her professional theatre debut after graduating from LAMDA, will play Desdemona.

They are joined by Rebecca Banatvala as Emilia, WhatsOnStage Award winner Grace Hodgett Young as Bianca, Chris Garner as Brabantio, Will Stanton as Cassio and Mattieu Sys as Roderigo.

Almeida said: “I don’t think Othello is really a play about jealousy. Jealousy is the symptom. The tragedy begins much earlier – in the tiny acts of adaptation, restraint and performance we all make in order to belong.

“Setting the play in Britain during the early 1980s wasn’t about making Shakespeare contemporary. It was about finding a society where appearance, professionalism and belonging carry enormous weight. Four hundred years after Shakespeare wrote it, the questions at the heart of the play still feel astonishingly urgent.”

The creative team includes designer Natasha Jenkins, lighting designer Sinead Mckenna, sound designer Matthew Tuckey, video designer Erin Guan, movement, fight and intimacy director Giaele Mattioli, production manager Suzie Normand, costume supervisor Sara Mackenzie and casting director Karishma Balani.

Following its Newcastle run, the production will run at HOME Manchester (30 September to 10 October), Royal and Derngate, Northampton (13 to 17 October), Theatre Clwyd (20 to 24 October), the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow (27 October to 7 November), Derby Theatre (10 to 14 November) and the New Theatre, Peterborough (17 to 20 November).