Othello [scenes]

Summary

BBC Television production of scenes from 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

Tuesday 14 December 1937

Time

3.25pm (35 mins)

Channel

BBC Television

Production company

BBC

Credits

Producer

George More O’Ferrall (1907-1982)

Playwright

William Shakespeare

Musician

Cyril Clarke (recorder)

Musician

Eric Robinson (guitar)

Musician

Gilbert Webster (tabor)

Dancer

Basil Dignam

Dancer

Jack Endle

Dancer

Thérèse Langfield

Dancer

Mayura Vincent

Dancer

Marian Wilson

Cast

Dorothy Black	Emilia
D. A. Clarke-Smith	Iago
Philip Desborough
John Dodsworth
Baliol Holloway	Othello
Celia Johnson	Desdemona
Olga Lindo	Bianca
Campbell Logan
Anthony Quayle

Additional details

Later transmissions

Broadcast again at 9.00pm on Saturday 18 December 1937.

Extant status

No archival copy is known to exist.

Play tags

class issues / differences; race relations; tragedy

Print sources

Title

BBC Television Programme Records: vol. 1, 1937-38 (Book)

Reference

London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1938

Linking notes

listing on p. 102

Title

Radio Times, 10 December 1937 (Magazine)

Linking notes

listing on p. 21