Othello is Kildare Youth Theatre's third major Shakespearean production with the Generator / Pulse ensemble, coming at a timely point in our European history with the East. The play can be seen as part of the literary canon that alludes to the West's historic (and current) attitude to the East, particularly to non-Christian Muslim and Turkish culture. We have often been encouraged to fear the Arab, Islam, the Ottoman  - from the days of Greek resistance to Xerxes and the Persians, through the fall of Constantinople to Suliman, down to today's growing fear of Islam.

Casting Othello as a Persian warrior living in, and mostly saving the Western states of Venice and Cyprus, we hoped that the play threw a little light on this historic tension between East and West. 

It is, of course, not the main focus of our production. We are interested in the boiling relationships that Shakespeare dissects in this island barracks geared for war. That the war never happens leaves the soldiers with pent-up energy that’s barely contained: celebrations turn into brawls; the sober and courtly become night-brawler; time itself mutates into something unreckonable; and the close relationship between two long-serving soldiers sours and festers, propelling the action of this great play.

Iago is relatively easy to understand, for all his complexity. His raging hurt at being passed over for promotion (after his long and loyal service to Othello) is reason enough for him to set vengeance in motion. He does not know how it will end when he begins to plot and we are hooked by his delight at how events spiral almost out of his giddy control. His burning bitterness fuels all. Othello, on the other hand, has made calculated attempts to knit himself into the aristocracy of this powerful city state. But being an outsider here marks him. However, he weds one of their golden girls and promotes to his side one of their golden boys. This is indeed the classic behaviour pattern of the native-made-good (the Raj in India, the Catholic middle-classes in 19th Ireland, the ‘warrant chiefs’ in 20th century Kenya and Nigeria). It is the behaviour of one who desires to be accepted into the ruling class but who actually rarely is. And Iago can see this. Like the Joker in The Dark Knight, he plays on Othello’s insecurities, pushing him - in the space of a day - from hero to murderer. Othello’s fall from the status of lover to killer in such a short space of time is hard to understand, and difficult to justify. This, and other knotty complexities of character and relationship, is the focus of our work in this version of Othello.

The production was staged in the round (with audience on all four sides), on floor level, and without theatre lights. The text is unedited but some actors double-up. As is usual with Kildare Youth Theatre’s classic play productions, Leaving Cert pupils who are studying the play performed the majority of the roles. They came from seven different schools in Kildare, and are all members of Kildare Youth Theatre.

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With great thanks to the principal, staff, and board of management of Scoil Na Naomh Uilig.