I beg of you, watch Emma Rice's 2016 production from the Globe. It is a RIOT. XD Immersive theatre is just the best (it's why the Globe is my favourite theatre!), because each live performance is going to be unique regardless, because of the massive unknown element of the audience (actors' individual circumstances notwithstanding). Involving the audience intimately in what's already a rich shared experience just makes it so much more special.
Fair enough! Staging is difficult thing to think about. YES. I agree. Music is--well, it's life, honestly. I say that as both a musician and someone who thinks music should be integrated into theatre the way it is in film. As you say, even doing so little as giving characters motifs (which is common in podcasting; I compose for podcasts occasionally and the bulk of the scoring is character themes), or building the emotion of a scene like a film soundtrack, adds so much depth that you don't fully realise you miss until you see productions that do use it. That's why I love Russian stage adaptations of Shakespeare so much, because they play more into the atmosphere than the concrete setting or even the language (since it's translated into plain speech); they utilise music and dance and expressionistic movement in a way that western productions don't and the end result is utterly captivating. When I used to film scenes from Shakespeare plays, my favourite part of editing them was creating a musical score to complement the action. It just adds so much.
Pink Floyd Hamlet would be fascinating! I'm only peripherally familiar with their music, so please, go into as much detail as you want! OKAY WAIT. Blues Othello is honestly such a vibe; the play translates weirdly well to music settings. I don't know if you've read Harold Jaffe's Othello Blues, but it retells the play in that world and it works so, so well. There's also an old film adaptation called All Night Long that reimagines Othello within the context of the 60s London jazz scene, which also works remarkably well (I don't know if you know who Patrick McGoohan is, but he plays the Iago character and delivers an absolutely electric performance, in character as well as on the drums). Highly recommend! I'll have to check out these other artists and songs you've mentioned, I'm intrigued now!
I'm playing Viola, which is very daunting and also just an absolute dream. Our production is definitely leaning into the comedy of the play, which is almost a departure from what's become the mainstream way of staging it. Our directors are taking a lot of inspiration from the 2017 production at the National Theatre, and our cast is just brilliant. Generally at least three people (I'm invariably one of them) hits the floor laughing in every rehearsal. It's great fun.
The points you've made on the significance of music in cinema/theatre is exactly why I'm obsessed with musicals and it makes me happy. I've been fascinated by the idea of the motif lately - an image or idea or parallel associated over and over again with a character or the relationship between two characters, the implications of which become more and more significant, perhaps taking on different meaning or layers of irony as the narrative progresses and more is revealed - so the musical motif is just a pet obsession of mine. You used to film scenes from Shakespeare plays? How exciting. ;)
Definitely check out the music! I have an entire stage-plan written out for the Hamlet/Pink-Floyd production (that would low-key be way too long to paste onto a comment), but let's just say that I would use music to the full maximum blended into nearly every scene, and it's full of odd, unusual, bizarre choices that no director would like ... but I just love the idea so much...
You're the local walking encyclopedia on Othello adaptations, you know that? Like, dude. You've done this fandom a service by existing here and I hope you know we treasure your input.
Playing Viola??? *screams* LET'S GO GET 'EM. You're gonna be amazing. Please let me know how your play goes. I'm a slut for theatre shenanigans and inside jokes and all the fun things that can come out of a company, crew and performance - my own experiences as part of the crew are some of the best memories I've ever had.
From a composition standpoint motifs are so hard, yet so fun. Sometimes the character's vibe cannot be encapsulated within a single short phrase. Sometimes they need a whole playlist. XD Yet such themes are such a fantastic way to reveal shades of characterisation in a visual/aural medium, especially because there's so much you can do with variations and minor alterations to reflect particular moods or peaks/troughs in the character arc.
I did! Still do, occasionally, when I find the time/have access to my various costume bits. XD
I certainly will! I would honestly love to see that stage plan some time, even if it wouldn't fit in a comment. I am extremely intrigued by what choices you've made. 👀
In true hyperfixation fashion, if I find a work or play I really like I tend to blaze through every adaptation of it I can find (I do the same with actors and their CVs, which is how I come to watch half of the weird things I do). Othello has a lot of very good ones. And thank you, again again, for your compliments (I'm once again crying). Shared geekery is the best kind and I aspire to share my own with people who care.
It was great while it lasted! Unfortunately, the show had to be postponed until the start of the next academic year due to medical issues with one of the directors (both of whom were also in the cast), and because I finished my degree and left the uni I'm no longer allowed to take a lead role in a student production. There's a few roles that will have to be recast, although I'm sure the new folks will do a great job. Our cast was really special, though, and we cherished the rehearsal time we had. Theatre shenanigans are honestly the best kind. The level of chaos is unmatched.
Dear friend,—
No words can do justice to the fact that I legit took years to reply to this, but I will apologize anyways. I'm sorry. I'm terrible. Please forgive me. It's been a very very hectic two years, I STARTED UNIVERSITY I CAN'T BELIEVE IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED, and life has gone through some craaaazy whirlwinds but now I'm back. It's that time of the year when I'm obsessed with Shakespeare again. And it came to me that I never replied to any of your wonderful messages, upon which I experienced acute horror.
I'm really sorry that you don't get to do Twelfth Night! I am sure that you'll manage to end up in more Shakespeare productions no matter what for the rest of your life, but still. The special bond with a special troupe is really irreplaceable. I would love LOVE to hear about any Shakespeare-adjacent shenanigans that you've gotten up to recently.
OOOOOH STORY TIME. Since we've last spoken, I managed to work as stage management on a student production of R&J at my university. It was staged as a lesbian production, so Romeo was renamed Rosaline, and it was outrageously fun. The three girls who played Benvolio, Tybalt, and Mercutio were, like, the coolest trio of people I've ever met. I used to just watch them walk in and out of rehearsal together and marvel over how effortlessly charismatic they each were. (Two of them were dating and I thought they were unbearably cute.) The actor who played Tybalt was also a co-director, and she bought me flowers on our final night to thank me for stage management work and I ALMOST CRIED. Seriously. These theatre kids are the kindest, sweetest, most brilliant people, and interacting with them feels like having the warmth of my sun on my face. So yes, when you mentioned your R&J shenanigans, I couldn't resist screaming about this.
Also: I AM SUPER SUPER SUPER HAPPY TO SHARE MY WACKY STAGEPLANS WITH YOU. The Hamlet Pink-Floyd adaptation is a dream. My dream is to be able to stage it with the RSC someday if I somehow SOMEHOW manage to end up working with them. I know, I know! A fool can dream. But I'm super happy to share it! If there's any way of contacting you directly via email or some shit, I will actually feel so honored.
Finally, I must confess:
I really need your help with something.
I need you to give me a list of your favorite productions of Othello. Now. To have your recommendations will be invaluable. You have no idea how much it will help me, and how lucky I will feel.
Do not feel bad at all, friend, life happens! AY YO?? Congratulations on starting uni, I hope it’s going well! What are you studying? Get into any shenanigans? I hope your coursework is interesting, and that you’ve found a good group of people to navigate the madness with. <3
That Twelfth Night will always hold a special place in my heart! As for Shakespeare shenanigans, a couple of years ago some friends and I filmed a spaghetti western spoof of R&J (with Tybalt and Mercutio as the lovers) over the course of a collective 24 hours, which was something we used to do in uni (we called it the redeye film festival: you’d be given a genre, line of dialogue from a season show, and a prop, and would need to make a movie in 24 hours incorporating all those elements). Extremely chaotic. XD One of those friends, who does voice acting, recommended a Tumblr group to me (though I don’t have tumblr) called Social Shakespeare. They do monthly cold reads of the plays, and I’ve done a few and it’s been super fun. It’s an open group as well, so if you have any interest in reading or spectating I definitely recommend checking them out! The most recent one we did was Hamlet; I got to play Claudius in one of the readings, which was SO FUN. Man has some fantastic lines.
Your production sounds amazing!! Queer R&J works so incredibly well; ours was very similarly cast, in that none of the younger generation (apart from Paris) was played by men. Your Ben-Merc-Tyb trio sounds fantastic, I want to meet them! Also good on Tybalt for bringing you flowers: justice for crew! (I’ve been crewing at my local community theatre for the past couple years and genuinely don’t know why I stuck with acting for so long when crew feels so much more natural XD). How did you find the experience of stage managing? What was your production like, the staging and vibe?
YES PLEASE DO. You can send it to [email protected] (original, I know XD)? Working for the RSC would be so cool, and if you ever get there, you better tell me so I can scream about it with you!
Okay let’s go. I confess, I’ve not actually seen that many stage productions of Othello. I’ve seen two at the Globe (the Mark Rylance one in 2018 and the one they did this year), neither of which I was a huge fan of. The new one made some…hmm. Interesting. Choices (modern setting with a theme of police brutality, they cut Iago’s lines down MASSIVELY, including nearly all of his soliloquies, which made him a much less impactful character, and they left Othello alive at the end to do this bit with racially-charged headlines reporting on mental health in LEOs; they also had two actors playing Othello, one of whom was like a mime-interpretative dance representation of his subconscious conflicts, which worked REALLY WELL at times and was really weird and jarring at others).
The best one that I’ve personally seen was the 2013 one the National Theatre did with Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear. I saw it filmed via NT live, and the acting and staging were really, really well done. A few years back an Ao3 friend told me about the one they’d seen the Pop-up Globe in Auckland do, in 2017, with Te Kohe Tuhaka and Haakon Smestad; I saw a few clips from that and really liked what they did.
For film adaptations, my favourite hands down is Vishal Bharadwaj’s Omkara (2005 or 2006). It was the first Bollywood film I ever saw and remains one of the best; they did an incredible job with the setting and the characters, and the performances are incredible. I also really love the 2001 ITV one with Eamonn Walker and Christopher Eccleston (who was ROBBED of a chance to play Iago onstage, he was fantastic in the film), as well as a film called All Night Long (1962 I think?), which set the story in a London jazz club. The 2001 O (American high school) was quite good as well.
Off the top of my head, I can think of two novel adaptations: Tracy Chevalier’s New Boy (70s ish American elementary school), and Harold Jaffe’s Othello Blues, which is my favourite of the two. Pure vibes. (Edit: I’m a fool and forgot I, Iago! Love that one!!)
I’m curious, is this for a project or just curiosity?
FRIEND. <3 Thank you for forgiving my negligence and forgetfulness.
I’m currently halfway through my 2nd year of undergrad reading English at Oxford, and 2nd year is the part of the degree where we get to spend our summer term reading Shakespeare (alongside our paper on 18th century poetry) WHICH IS GOING TO BE AMAZING. We have to produce a portfolio of three essays which will count towards the grade of our entire degree. My first year at uni was absolutely chaos—in a mildly concerning way, I was not doing too well—and it’s still absolute chaos this year, but in a very very good way. The course is incredible. I… I got to listen to Simon Palfrey speak in real life??? Part of my brain still refuses to accept that. It’s surreal. I’m not sure if I’ll be lucky enough to stay for a Masters—you need really good grades for that, which I’m not guaranteed to have—but I will definitely apply for one.
No but honestly: I really really would be so happy to share any of my Shakespeare coursework with you. I’m just worried that it would seem kinda presumptuous—whyyyyy would anyone want to hear me argue about why wasps and bees are important in Julius Caesar for 2000 words? It seems rude to shove that in anyone’s face—so BY NO MEANS would you ever have to read anything I’ve done.
AHHHHH the Tumblr group sounds amazing!!! I love that for you so much. As someone who is on Tumblr exclusively for Shakespeare reasons, because the community slaps, I should really check this out. Also, hit me with your favorite line from Claudius.
Regarding our production of R&J: staging was relatively simple, standard props, period-costume, lots of ivy vines all over the place. We had an actual balcony! Like, a real balcony! lol I love telling people this. Personally, if I’d been directing it, I would’ve tried to do more with the staging—because I feel like they didn’t quite make use of certain spaces, e.g. the aisles among the audience, enough. The fight choreographies were EPIC, though. I was lucky enough to watch the Mercutio/Tybalt fight scene in rehearsal multiple times and every time they killed it. (Pun… unintended.) AHHH I LOVED IT. Finally, the actor who played Nurse was simply phenomenal, I would kiss her boots. She stole the show.
I’ve always been part of crew throughout high-school so stage manager is a real task of love for me. I always feel lucky that I get to be near such cool actors EVERY DAY and watch them perform and actually take care of them.
I’ve already spoiled the surprise in another comment section, but YES I AM ASKING FOR YOUR ‘OTHELLO’ RECS as a means of preparing to direct it! I’ve only seen Othello live once and I don’t watch many filmed productions—somehow I just have such a vivid and solid vision for how I see Othello that I don’t feel the need to binge all the adaptations before directing it, which is pretty strange—but I was preparing in advance just in any case any of my cast or crew members wanted to familiarize themselves with the play through adaptations. I need to be able to offer at least a few recs. And because I trust your recs. More than anyone else’s. Heheheheh.
Noted, i.e. the 2013 National Theatre production. THANK YOU. <3
Shout-out to the Eamon Walker British TV adaptation. I have a strong impression of that one because Eamon Walker wrote an essay on his experiences playing Othello, which is collected in a published anthology of actor/director essays called Shakespeare and Me (I highly recommend the anthology, it’s my go-to comfort book at this point). I LOVED THAT ESSAY. It made me so happy reading about someone’s live, organic, un-scholarly experiences when engaging with a play that means so much to me.
Also, just gotta say: any production that cuts Iago’s lines will get the cold shoulder from me. ESPECIALLY HIS SOLILOQUIES. That’s a crime. I’m such a creep that I know most of his soliloquies off by heart, so literally, I will notice. And I will care.
I am so jealous in the best way possible. That sounds absolutely amazing. I'm sorry the first year wasn't great; hopefully you're doing better now, and things have settled a bit! Good chaos is preferable. <3 Definitely apply! Even if you don't get accepted onto a master's at Oxford (which would be a crime), hopefully other unis might have similar programs?
STOP THAT MAN IS A LEGEND. What did he talk about?? Also yes the fuck please I would love to see your coursework. I want the bees. That is the kind of shit that gets me so fired up, just finding niche details in these incredibly rich texts and mining them for thematic depth. It's so fun.
You absolutely should! https://www.tumblr.com/socialshakespeare I think the signups for this month's reading have ended, but you could almost definitely still spectate. It's an amazing group of people. Okay Claudius lines I have...two and a half. The entire confession soliloquy in act 3 scene 2 is one, because those lines BURNED. I'm like Jesus fuck the depths of grief and knotted guilt and self-loathing in this man are off the charts. Specifically within that soliloquy, there was this moment: "And, like a man to double business bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin, and both neglect." Shakespeare really said I know exactly what executive dysfunction feels like and unlike you I have the perfect words to describe it. XD Then, for sheer comic genius, my favourite line in the entire show was 'the doors are broke,' right before Laertes' re-entry in act 4. It came out of nowhere and I laughed so hard internally.
Oh FUCK yeah the balcony is essential! And making use of the whole theatre space is something that more directors should tackle, imo. R&J has all these massive crowd scenes: go buck wild! Get the audience up close and personal with the way these ordinary citizens are buffeted by the tides of conflict! I was lucky enough to take a stage combat class my final year of undergrad and that first fight scene was one we staged as a whole class: in a coffee shop, I got to slam Benvolio into a table, chairs went flying everywhere, it was great. Fight choreo is so freaking fun.
Yes!! It's such a different experience helping shape the show from behind, and it's so rewarding.
I FORGOT THE CLASSIC OTHELLO REC. The 1995 film! Specifically the scene (late in act 3 or early in act 4; I know I filmed that scene once and cannot for the life of me remember where in the play it actually was) where Othello is confronting Iago like bitch you best be telling me the truth about my wife tell me to my face she's cheating and then straight up tries to drown him in the sea. The only adaptation that stages that scene better is the film Omkara (railroad track, pouring rain, they've just finished a raid on a rival gang, adrenaline and tempers are running high and Othello beats the shit out of Iago with his gun while begging him to answer the question of Desdemona's infidelity and then LEAVES HIM THERE it's such an amazing scene). And your vision is your own! Trying to suss out other adaptations is probably daunting if you're not looking for somewhere to start; if you already have a strong vision already, honour it. I'm sure it'll turn out amazing, with your passion there's no way it couldn't. <3
Funnily enough I think I read works from that anthology years ago but somewhere never managed to find that one! I'll have to go looking again, because Walker's performance was incredible. They all were, to be fair. OH FUN FACT I saw the guy who played Cassio in that one (Richard Coyle) as Henry IV in the Wimbledon Theatre's Player Kings (Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, with Ian McKellen as Falstaff, ABSOLUTE GODDAMN LEGEND), and genuinely he gave such a compelling performance. I'd forgotten how good of an actor that man was.
Oh my god same. I was waiting for them. And they never came. I'm like what the actual hell have you done to the script. I’m such a creep that I know most of his soliloquies off by heart, so literally, I will notice. ...Confession time when I first saw Othello at the Globe (in 2018) I was mouthing Iago's lines along with Mark Rylance and at one point he looked directly at me, and I said a bit that had been cut and the dude TRIPPED UP. Like a split second of oh god oh fuck what's the line. I felt so bad but it was also so funny and will forever be in my top three Globe moments (in addition to the hose in Much Ado and the time my flatmate and I snuck Nando's in to the 2022 Twelfth Night).
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