With intense themes of racial tension and sexual jealousy the play, is surprisingly relevant to modern times. Othello, the Moorish General, a convert to Christianity from Islam, has everything, a beautiful young wife, command of the Venetian army, and the acclamation of the Senate and people of Venice as a great hero. But he falls prey to the malicious scheming of his devious and thwarted NCO, Iago, who infects his chief with the ‘green-eyed monster’ of jealousy, with tragic consequences for all. Othello is one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies and is a dark play, where all the main characters are introduced by night and all die by night. It is well suited to being played in a small intimate theatre as the audience becomes complicit in the heated atmosphere of this ‘monster’ of racial hatred and sexual jealousy aroused and fuelled by the villainous Iago.
