Othello

Jealousy is a slow poison and in Tom Morris's unsparing production, nobody gets out clean. David Harewood reprises the role he made history with when he became the first Black actor to play Othello almost 30 years ago. Toby Jones plays Iago as a fatigues-wearing Non-Commissioned Officer who delivers his poison in prose rather than poetry, using prejudice as a weapon while claiming innocence. A single slap lands like a thunderclap. Harewood's physicality shrinks as jealousy tightens its grip. None of the three women break: Caitlin FitzGerald's clear-eyed Desdemona, Vinette Robinson's quietly devastating Emilia, Rose Riley's defiant Bianca. PJ Harvey's score broods beneath every scene. Ti Green's gilt-framed set traps the characters in a past they can't escape. Filmed live at London's Theatre Royal Haymarket, this is Shakespeare's great tragedy of manipulation and desire.