David Harewood returns to the role of Shakespeare’s Moor General for the first time in nearly 30 years in Tom Morris’s production of Othello, currently streaming on Marquee TV.
Filmed at the Theatre Royal Haymarket during its recent West End revival, this Othello offers a remarkable performance as Iago from a duplicitous Toby Jones.
With a vibrancy in its lighting (Richard Howell), sound (Jon Nicholls), and atmosphere, Morris offers Harewood’s stoic and softly-spoken Othello a partner of fire in Caitlin FitzGerald’s determined Desdemona.
When Othello is sent to fight the Turks, the newly-married pair choose to stay together, and so a vicious plot begins for Iago to first supplant Cassio (Luke Treadaway), a man who was promoted over him, and then undermine the General himself. Along the way, Tom Byrne’s love-struck Rodrigo is collateral damage for the cause.
Vinette Robinson’s Emilia, downtrodden wife to Iago, is voyeur, accomplice, and victim of her husband’s plans as the play progresses. Each time Othello describes his ancient as “good” or “honest”, it pulls us up short.
To bring yet another Othello to the stage needs a reason – a new insight, angle, or focus. It is very different to the 1997 production for the National Theatre, which made history by casting Harewood as the first Black actor to play the role there.
Now, as a mature man of 60, Harewood has achieved a mantle of pride alongside the physical lethargy of age. His troops are young revellers, drinkers and partiers, easy to rile into fight and quarrel.
One facet of the staging I particularly liked was cutting quickly between scenes, sometimes flipping between them or freeze-framing to underline a moment. I also loved the subtle underscoring of the soliloquies.
Jones’s Iago sets up each moment with care and concern. You would never suspect this quiet, rule-fearing, serious man of causing so much havoc, and at the point when he refuses to speak again, it is hard to understand his motivation.
Running just 150 minutes, this production is stripped-back and contemparised by Morris, with music by PJ Harvey and design by Ti Green.
In filming it for cinemas and streaming, it captured the malice and machinations of a privately gleeful villain against an immigrant who is driven to lose his mind.
Over time, I have found Othello to be possibly Shakespeare’s most tragic play. It has contemporary relevance in its racism, jealousy and misogyny. Iago can be read as an incel whose clearly ‘dead bedroom’ leaves him with a hatred of all women.
Casting a mixed-race actress, Robinson, as Emilia, underlines Iago’s character when it comes to women, particularly Black women. It also hints at white people expecting those of other races to serve, as Emilia acts as Desdemona’s maid.
The 1990 RSC version with Willard White, Ian McKellen and Imogen Stubbs, filmed for BBC’s Theatre Night, remains my favourite version, but this has definitely got moments that make it one of the superior adaptations.
Othello (2026) is currently streaming on Marquee TV.
Photo credit: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg