Othello at the Haymarket review: Dastardly Toby Jones delights
Othello review and star rating: ★★★★
If diversifying the West End feels like slow progress, remember it wasn’t that long ago that accurate representation was barely even a talking point. It was 1997 when David Harewood finally became the first black actor to play Othello at the National Theatre, following a succession of white actors in blackface including Laurence Olivier, who in 1964 played the North African army general opposite Maggie Smith’s Desdemona.
Tom Morris’ thunderously effective stripped-back production is Harewood’s third bite at the insecure leader (he first played him at the Swan Theatre in Worcester in 1991). What sticks is that watching Harewood is history-making: like Ian McKellen’s three Hamlets, Harewood will be remembered for precision-tooling Othello over a lifetime. It’s a privilege to witness his third take.
Harewood’s 2025-coded Othello is often brawny and full of machismo, like a cocksure extrovert showing off in the pub. But Harewood also smashes the character’s famous stormy-mindedness in a way that grips you because of how shockingly authentic it feels.
David Harewood’s masterful, complex Othello
He suspects his wife Desdemona of having an affair after Iago, a soldier played by Toby Jones, fibs about her alleged deceit. Iago has a grudge because Othello promotes another soldier called Cassio to Lieutenant over him, which makes Iago resentful, so he strategises to dismantle him.
One of Shakespeare’s ‘big four’ tragedies, Othello follows charismatic, morally bankrupt Iago as he sculpts an elaborate ecosystem of lies to Othello to convince him of his wife’s deceit. A decent staging largely just requires two fine actors, and luckily Harewood has Toby Jones. Jones’ Iago has a psychopath’s proficiency to lie; you wouldn’t cross his deathly poker face, but he also plays up the comedy bits, turning to the audience to glean laughter after delivering porky pies about Desdemona.
The pairing avoids slipping into farce, but there is definitely added comedy from the little-and-large power play between Jones and Harewood. It often feels fairly camp watching Jones crucify Harewood like some terrible panto villain.
Morris’ production is sparse, occasionally to the extent that it feels Fringey, but mostly it’s straightforwardly effective and works to platform the acting. Ti Green’s design includes occasional projected video that feels a tad melodramatic, although a glitter curtain the height of the Haymarket theatre is an alluring and provocative backdrop. PJ Harvey orchestrated the music but it’s fitting rather than particularly memorable.
Promotional spiel talks about toxic masculinity, but that feels a stretch. Othello is really about a horrible man and the horrible things he manages to do to someone’s mind. Thematically it’s fairly plain sailing, and this production doesn’t need fancy new messaging: it’s just a solid version, furnished at its heart by two fine performances that haunt long after the curtain. Crucially, there’s enough physical acting to convey the central plot, so this production will appeal to people who typically shy away from the Bard, or struggle to follow the language.
To book Othello go to trh.co.uk