Chronicle Summer 2023

36 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

military general of the title, and her good lieutenant, Cassio, are female (talented drama students, Sade McNichols-Thomas and Alice Hannah respectively). From this fresh angle, Iago, played brilliantly by Felix Forsyth with his insipid, secretive and malicious manipulation of Othello, reveals a tarnished male ego, inverting and fragmenting the bonds of friendship with a destructive jealousy and a manipulative gender rivalry bent on ruin. Iago’s resentment of Othello for Cassio’s promotion, above his own, and for Othello’s love of Desdemona, becomes highly apposite and familiar in the context of modern sexual and race politics. As the story opens, we see Othello (played with a quiet confidence and powerful inner strength by Sade) and Desdemona (gracefully and wistfully played by Luisa Raphael) deeply in love, happy and secure in their commitment and secret elopement despite the disapproval of Brabantio, Desdemona’s domineering mother played by Bella Meikle. Once again, the traditionally male Shakespearean

Luisa Raphael as Desdemona

For this production, Eden worked alongside a pupil dramaturg, Gathoni Nesbitt, and, together with the cast in rehearsal, they discussed and explored in depth some of the more relatable and contentious issues surrounding modern

prejudice, race and issues of gender, sexism and inclusion. Within this contemporary context, a strong black female leader struggling within the remnants of a male dominated world becomes natural and compelling. Both Othello, our famous

Patrick Maxwell, Tallulah Redding and Eva Scates