Review: As a school girl I studied Othello as one of my A-Level texts so this play has remained with me most of my life. It is one of my core, foundational Shakespeare plays (along with Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth). The Shakespeare we are introduced to in school can often be the Shakespeare which lives within us most and that is certainly the case for me with Othello.
Othello is possibly the Shakespeare play I have watched on stage the most. This means I have been fortunate enough to see so many creative stagings of Shakespeare's great tragedy: from a North African holiday resort, to a modern day pub in West Yorkshire (ever heard iambic pentameter with glottal stops? I have!) and most recently at The Globe's Sam Wanamaker Playhouse an Othello set in the present day with the Metropolitan Police, with a heavy focus on the effects of racism on male mental health. All interpretations of Othello are able to easily make commentary on prejudices and other prescient issues. Good productions really make the audience stop and think.
I will never tire of watching the various interpretations of this tale of a great man destroyed by his gullibility and the most dangerous thing of all: a friend who is actually a foe.
Title: The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
Author: William Shakespeare
Genre: Classic
ISBN: 978-1472571762
Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare
Publication Date: 1603
Publisher Description: A soldier of great standing and a newly married man, Othello seems to be in an enviable position. And yet, when his supposed friend sows doubts in his mind about his wife's fidelity, he is gradually consumed by suspicion. In this tragedy of strange, ornate beauty and remarkable psychological power, innocence is corrupted, and goodness and happiness are wantonly destroyed.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English dramatist, poet, and actor, generally regarded as the greatest playwright of all time, the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire and was baptised on 26 April 1564. Thought to have been educated at the local grammar school, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he went on to have three children, at the age of eighteen, before moving to London to work in the theatre. Two erotic poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece were published in 1593 and 1594 and records of his plays begin to appear in 1594 for Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI. Shakespeare's tragic period lasted from around 1600 to 1608, during which period he wrote plays including Hamlet and Othello. The first editions of the sonnets were published in 1609 but evidence suggests that Shakespeare had been writing them for years for a private readership.
Shakespeare spent the last five years of his life in Stratford, by now a wealthy man. He died on 23 April 1616 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. The first collected edition of his works was published in 1623.