Othello

Summary

1990 BBC presentation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1989 production of Shakespeare’s Othello.

Theatre play

Othello by William Shakespeare [more information]

Play synopsis

'Othello the Moor, a general employed by the Venetian state, has secretly married Desdemona, a daughter of the senator Brabantio. Iago, an ensign nursing resentment against Othello, enlists the help of Rodorigo, a disappointed suitor of Desdemona. They wake Brabantio in the middle of the night with the news of his daughter’s elopement. Brabantio takes the case to the senate where, learning that she has married Othello of her own accord, he disowns his daughter. Othello is immediately ordered to the Venetian colony of Cyprus to repel a threatened Turkish invasion. Desdemona sails with her husband, taking with them her companion Emilia, who is also Iago’s wife, and Othello’s lieutenant Michael Cassio, newly promoted over Iago’s head. Once in Cyprus, Iago plants the suspicion in Othello’s mind that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him with Cassio. He engineers a drunken brawl for which Cassio is blamed and dismissed by Othello. Desdemona intercedes on Cassio’s behalf but her constant pleas to Othello for his reinstatement only serve to convince Othello that Cassio is her lover. Iago acquires a treasured handkerchief that belonged to Desdemona and uses it as proof of the affair. Increasingly maddened by jealousy, Othello orders Iago to kill Cassio and strangles Desdemona himself. Emilia discloses her husband’s plot and Othello, tormented by grief and remorse, kills himself. Iago, after murdering his own wife, is left to the justice of the Venetian state’. (Source: http://www.rscshakespeare.co.uk/othello.html, accessed 6 November 2012.)

Production history

Written c. 1603 and the first known performance occurred on 1 November 1604 at Whitehall Palace in London. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello#Performance_history.)

Date of transmission

Saturday 23 June 1990

Time

8.00-9.40pm; 9.55-11.40pm

Series

Theatre Night

Channel

BBC2

Production company

BBC; Primetime Television

Theatre company

Royal Shakespeare Company

Credits

Director

Trevor Nunn

Producer

Greg Smith

Playwright

William Shakespeare

Cast

Sean Baker	Cassio
John Burgess	Duke of Venice / Lodovico
Jonathan Goldstein	Musician
Michael Grandage	Roderigo
David Hounslow	Servant to the Senate / First Cyprus Soldier / First Othello Soldier
Marsha Hunt	Bianca
Brian Lawson	First Senator / Second Cyprus Soldier / Second Othello Soldier
Ian McKellen	Iago
Peter Rolinson	Musician
Imogen Stubbs	Desdemona
Philip Sully	Montano
Clive Swift	Brabantio / Gratiano
Zoë Wanamaker (1949-)	Emilia
Willard White	Othello

Additional details

Play tags

class issues / differences; race relations; tragedy

Audiovisual sources

Title

Othello (BBC, 1990)

Archive

BBC Information and Archives [more information]

Address

White City
London
UK

Telephone

+44 (0)20 8008 2288

Website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/informationandarchives/

Access

BBC Information and Archives is not open to the public.

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 21 June 1990 (Magazine)

Linking notes

full-page article, p. 12; article with image, p. 29; listing, p. 31