Othello Reimagined for Royal & Derngate
A bold new production of Shakespeare’s Othello is heading to Royal & Derngate this October, reimagining the tragedy through the lens of race, identity and belonging in 1980s Britain.
Directed by award-winning theatre and opera director Anthony Almeida, the new staging is a co-production between Northern Stage, HOME and Citizens Theatre, in association with Royal & Derngate. Following its opening in Newcastle in September, it will play Northampton’s Royal stage from Tuesday 13 to Saturday 17 October as part of the Made in Northampton season.
Dwane Walcott, whose credits include A Streetcar Named Desire at the Almeida, West End and in New York, and BBC’s Our Girl, takes the title role, with Trigger Point actor Maanuv Thiara as Iago. Recent LAMDA graduate Phoebe Smyth makes her professional theatre debut as Desdemona.
Rather than approaching Othello simply as a story of jealousy, Almeida’s production explores the pressures of assimilation and the compromises people make in order to feel that they belong.
The action moves to Britain in the early 1980s, a country undergoing significant social change. Against the backdrop of the Falklands War, Cyprus becomes an isolated military outpost where authority, professionalism and appearances matter — and where identity increasingly becomes a battleground.
Love, loyalty, race, class, gender and power all come under scrutiny as the production explores the everyday performances that can allow people to fit in, but can also leave them dangerously isolated.
“I don’t think Othello is really a play about jealousy. Jealousy is the symptom,” says Almeida. “The tragedy begins much earlier — in the tiny acts of adaptation, restraint and performance we all make in order to belong.”
He adds that moving the story to the 1980s was not simply an attempt to modernise Shakespeare, but a way of finding a setting in which “appearance, professionalism and belonging carry enormous weight”.
“Four hundred years after Shakespeare wrote it, the questions at the heart of the play still feel astonishingly urgent. They’re questions about who we become when we believe we have to perform in order to be accepted — and what happens when those performances finally collapse.”
The cast also includes Rebecca Banatvala (Summerfolk, National Theatre) as Emilia and Grace Hodgett Young, winner of The Stage Debut Award and WhatsOnStage Best Professional Debut Award for Sunset Boulevard, as Bianca.
Northeast actors Chris Garner (Coronation Street, War Horse) and Will Stanton appear as Brabantio and Cassio respectively, with Stanton making his professional debut. Mattieu Sys, a long-standing member of internationally acclaimed theatre company Ontroerend Goed, plays Roderigo after being selected from an open casting call attracting more than 200 performers.
The production marks Almeida’s first staging of Shakespeare’s Othello. Known for bold reinterpretations of classic works, he is the only director to have received both the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award and the European Opera Director Prize.
The creative team includes designer Natasha Jenkins, sound designer Matthew Tuckey, lighting designer Sinead McKenna, video designer Erin Guan and movement, fight and intimacy director Giaele Mattioli.
Othello plays Royal & Derngate, Northampton from Tuesday 13 to Saturday 17 October 2026.
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Anthony Almeida
A secret marriage.
The brink of war.
Fact and fiction.
It’s not just black and white.
Fear, passion and paranoia bubble beneath the surface of Othello and Desdemona’s newlywed life.
Iago’s manipulations begin in whispers – and end in ruin.
Director Anthony Almeida‘s new production looks afresh at this iconic tragedy – as much about love as it is about hate.
“Chaos is come again.”
Othello – 2026 UK Tour
Newcastle – Northern Stage
11–26 September 2026
Book / find out more at Northern Stage
Manchester – HOME
30 September–10 October 2026
Book / find out more at HOME Manchester
Northampton – Royal & Derngate
13–17 October 2026
Book / find out more at Royal & Derngate
Mold – Theatr Clwyd
20–24 October 2026
Theatr Clwyd
Glasgow – Citizens Theatre
27 October–7 November 2026
Book / find out more at Citizens Theatre
Derby – Derby Theatre
10–14 November 2026
Book / find out more at Derby Theatre
Peterborough – New Theatre
17–20 November 2026
Book / find out more at New Theatre Peterborough
