The National Theatre has added two productions to its winter season: William Shakespeare’s Othello and April De Angelis' new play Kerry Jackson.
Hamilton Olivier winner Giles Terera will star in the title role of the Shakespeare classic, opening November 23 in the Lyttelton. The production, co-starring Rosy McEwen (The Alienist) as Desdemona and Paul Hilton (The Inheritance) as Iago, will also be broadcast to cinemas worldwide in 2023 via National Theatre Live.
Clint Dyer will direct Terera in the Shakespeare tragedy, marking the first time a Black man has directed the work at a major British theatre.
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Dyer, who previously directed Terera in Death of England: Face to Face, told Deadline that having a "Black man directing Shakespeare at the National is a huge thing!" He believes that white directors haven't felt "comfortable with being able to articulate the Black experience through the piece and so instead they’d just avoid it. And so that the National having a Black man direct it through a Black lens… is beyond belief.”
The production will also feature Jack Bardoe, Rory Fleck Byrne, Kirsty J Curtis, Tanya Franks, Gareth Kennerley, Martin Marquez, Amy Newton, Steffan Rizzi, and Jay Simpson with set design by Chloe Lamford, costume design by Michael Vale, lighting design by Jai Morjaria, music and sound by Pete Malkin and Benjamin Grant, movement direction by Lucie Pankhurst, and fight direction by Kev McCurdy. Performances will continue through January 21, 2023.
In the Dorfman, also in November, Indhu Rubasingham will direct the world premiere of De Angelis' new comedy, Kerry Jackson.
Fay Ripley will star as Kerry, the owner of a new restaurant in fashionable Walthamstow. Additional casting will be announced.
The production will also have set and costume design by Richard Kent, lighting design by Oliver Fenwick, movement direction by Lucy Hind, and casting by Juliet Horsley.
