Othello [extract]

Summary

1954 BBC production of J. M. Barrie’s mystery Shall We Join the Ladies?, presented from the Vanburgh Theatre, London as part of a broader programme titled We Live to Please, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, which opened with a discussion of the early years of RADA in the studio. The performances thereafter presented were excerpts from Pygmalion, Othello and The Lady’s Not for Burning, followed by what was possibly a full production of Shall We Join the Ladies?

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

Sunday 20 June 1954

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

Eric Fawcett

Playwright

William Shakespeare

Cast

Barbara Jefford	Desdemona
Anthony Quayle	Othello

Additional details

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

class issues / differences; race relations; tragedy

Print sources

Title

Radio Times, 18 June 1954 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing, p. 14; article, p. 15

Associated programmes

Pygmalion [excerpt] (BBC, 1954)
Pygmalion by [George] Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
BBC Television

Shall We Join the Ladies? (BBC, 1954)
Shall We Join the Ladies? by J. M. Barrie (1860-1937)
BBC Television

The Lady’s not for Burning [extract] (BBC, 1954)
The Lady’s not for Burning by Christopher Fry (1907-2005)
BBC Television