A bold, contemporary interpretation of Shakespeare's most passionate and spiritually-charged creation. Longtime co-artistic leaders of LAByrinth Theater Company and Public Theater favorites John Ortiz and Philip Seymour Hoffman are Othello and Iago, intense and fiery figures in Shakespeare's globalized contest of deception, ambiguity and overpowering love. Internationally-acclaimed director Peter Sellars, renowned for tearing through boundaries with his visionary stagings of the classics, finds in the play a modern resonance that raises a mirror to our own culture's overwhelming personal and political yearnings. His production charts the new prospects for hope in 21st-century America by measuring them against Shakespeare's vivid depiction of racial struggle, the fog of war, and the thin frontiers that separate love and jealousy, vengeance and forgiveness.
OTHELLO Cast
Julian Acosta
Gaius Charles
Jessica Chastain
Liza Colon-Zayas
Saidah Arrika Ekulona
Philip Seymour Hoffman
John Ortiz
Leroy McClain
Audience members who attend OTHELLO on September 12, 13, 24 and October 1 are welcome to stay after the performance for a post-show talk-back.
The OTHELLO Sunday Speaker Series will be moderated by Dr. Avery T. Willis, who has collaborated with Peter Sellars as an assistant director and dramaturg. The FREE discussions will be held 3:00-4:00PM preceding all Sunday matinee performances and are open to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis. Click here for more information about these events and participants.
Presented by The Public Theater and LAByrinth Theater Company in association with Wiener Festwochen, Vienna, and Schauspielhaus Bochum and by special arrangement with NYU Skirball Center.
Pictured above: John Ortiz and Philip Seymour Hoffman
Photos by Armin Bardel
