Othello was a lesbian, right?
mainTheater Hof in Bavaria is streaming Shakespeare’s Othello next weekend here. It says:
The Hofer “Othello” version rethinks the classic subject of belonging and exclusion: In Reinhardt Friese’s brand new interpretation approach, Othello as a lesbian woman is a tolerated foreign body in the men’s world of the Venetian Navy.
Antje Hochholdinger as Othello, Alrun Herbing as Desdemona (photographer: Harald Dietz)
Is it April 1st already?
Bloomin Nora – why don’t they set it in Hawaii on a rocket???
Because it’s been done before
Regietheater at its worst. Actually, Regietheater is usually at its worst.
especially in bloody Germany where they can’t do differently as they still suffer from their horrible past – you hardly see anything good there just rubbish especially in Bayreuth
The German ‚Mief‘
I just Googled “lesbian Othello” and found several other productions over the past few years including one with a trans Moor. Sara Bernhardt was one of several women to portray Hamlet at the end of the 19th Century. They also had an all-male Swan Lake playing in Manhattan a few years back. While they have every right to do it and it will make the papers as it is an oddity, perhaps an absurdity, not sure how it puts butts in seats nightly for a long run. The audience isn’t large enough to sustain these sort of performances. Just another example of the “theatre of the absurd”.
LA Phil put on a concert “Romeo and Juliet” ballet with 2 gay men. Disgusting really.
Puffickly scandalous indeed! To bring down a tale of a noble love to the level of ballet dancers!
It’s rather “absurd of the theatre” 🙂
Now, now, don’t be snide. Look at the benefits:
1. Otello is clearly different.
2. Otello’s fear that Desdemona may dump her for Cassio is plausible.
3. No blackface, which some don’t like.
Give it a chance. Think outside the box.
There is a (large) box wherein these kind of plays have been residing for quite a long time and the label says: ‘Handle with care’. The box of contemporary Regietheater, desperately looking for relevance of works from the past to the modern world which has not produced such a play, is conspicuously small in comparison.
… label says: ‘Handle with care’
If only it said ‘Handel, with care’. That would be more interesting.
Handelin’ with care and haydn’ from view!
That’s not thinking outside the box: today, it’s thinking’s right INTO the box
And yet, Shakespeare still survives…
Exactly. The handwringing when this stuff happens is revealing. “Oh no! Somewhere, someone is enjoying art that I like *in the wrong way*!”
The basic humanity and framework in Shakespeare is such that it’s possible to transform it for a hundred differing cultures and it still works and is still powerful. Even in early 21st century western pluralistic multicultural society.
I fully expect people to be performing and adapting Shakespeare well into the 22nd century and beyond; I bet to us it would look unrecognizable but it will still be powerful and meaningful to them.
Agreed. If one finds this silly, there’s a simple, elegant solution: don’t go. I’ll never understand people who get their jollies by twisting their knickers into a bunch over things like this. Some people like being angry all the time I guess.
No, all of this is a grave misunderstanding and unintentionally offensive to the intelligence of contemporary audiences, as if they could not possibly understand universal human concerns if it is not literally saturated with signals of modernity.
“No, all of this is a grave misunderstanding and unintentionally offensive to the intelligence of contemporary audiences,”
Would you say this to Kurosawa’s face?
Yes why not? Would it melt?
False analogy, Anon! A Moose! Kurosawa was adapting Shakespeare, not purporting to present a Shakespeare play “in a new modern-speech translation”. Adaptations are fine by me. If somebody wrote a play based on the plot of Othello with a central character (even played by a male actor) who was a Lesbian naval commander, that would be valid. But this distortion of Shakespeare’s actual text strikes me as ludicrous. (And it is not the same as Sarah Bernhardt acting Hamlet.)
https://www.highonfilms.com/how-akira-kurosawas-shakespeare-adaptations/
Indeed. If one would like to see different characters in Shakespearean situations, one has to write a new play.
Once more, alas and alark, we live in the time of remakes. Next one – “Entitlelus Androgenicus”
Without a slightest hesitation! Kurosawa said enough – beautifully filmed, mind – nonsense and banality into MY face…
Totally agree! And, as the Bible itself teaches, an unintentional – in the sense un-cognised – offence is graver than an intentional one because it leaves no possibility for repentance
But MOST people enjoy art in the wrong way.
What is it? Claude Levi-Stross’ structuralism one-oh-one? The basic psychic unity of mankind? To be sure. But, as Claude himself oft repeated, the story is in the telling. This discussion is not about the story but about the telling… which, in my view, sucks
You sure, mate? Alas and alark, I have my doubts…
The misunderstanding of such adaptations is, that contemporary audiences are incapable of recognizing universal human concerns in any other period and place than their own. Theatre plays are, like operas, books, poems, paintings, musical works, products of the imagination, to be experienced as mimetic representations of the typically human, reflecting the human condition.
It is looking down upon audiences as if they are chimpanzees, whose perception doesn’t go beyond the bananas and cage grills of their own direct environment.
Thanks for letting us know. I’ll be careful not to have such nonsense insult my intelligence.
How far can people get to insult paying audiences? In 1986 there was, in Amsterdam, a ‘play’ in the local theatre titled ‘Going to the dogs’, which consisted of barking dogs on the stage and a puzzled audience watching it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_to_the_Dogs
And John Cage? The most acclaimed 4 minutes silence (with captive audience) on the grave of music.
And then there is the Rape of Lucretia in which the male and female roles are reversed.
https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/the-rape-of-lucretia-victorian-opera-tasmanian-symphony-for-dark-mofo/
Haven’t heard of it! Thanks! Brilliant! Knocking rape between genders. Reminds me of a famous quip that during capitalism man exploited man; but during communism it’ll be the other way around.
Oh no! Something different that doesn’t exactly line up with how I perceive it. I mean, Salome doesn’t sing in the original version so don’t set her to music; Hamlet is oftentimes done with cuts to the text – how dare you? You know what? If you don’t like the idea then don’t buy a ticket.
According to some apocryphal bible chapters – condemned at the Trent Council – Salome sang while she danced her dance of the seven veils, and also considerably off-key, which was particularly offensive to Jochanaan, whose protestations filled 2/3 of his original curse.
I certainly will not buy a ticket. However, with all due respect, your answer is akin to “you don’t like it here, so go to where you bloody came from!”
Definitely NOT a viola player….
Who doesn’t like to watch 2 women?
It’s 2 men that gross me out.
Two men = scandalous, and obscene, should be prohibited! Two women however, are Heaven. There should be distinctions!
Sally
Sorry about that. She is a leftwing feminist and hates men and Beethoven.
guys, slow down… we’re on shaky and dangerous grounds here… Besides, I, for one, don’t particularly enjoy watching two women let alone two men (me being a lowly hetero, mind). Having no choice but just watch, I’d much rather watch a man and and a woman. Much more harmonious … to me.
Harmony is fine. However, it has nothing to do with gender, but only with the degree of compatibility of the people concerned. Look at pigeons: they are all the same but they stick to the one who offers that little bit of extra harmony that’s just missing in the collective.
As in all arts, a lot depends on how it is done. For example, Matthew Bourne’s all-male Swan Lake that was mentioned by “Met’s Savior” above here, was a brilliantly choreographed ballet that was a pleasure to watch. So, we should not rush to judgement before actually experiencing this new production.
Indeed and it seems that in that production, it was not about gender but about beauty and expression.
To my eyes, it was about all of those things. What was at least equally important – it did not violate the spirit of Tchaikovsky’s music but instead revealed new dimensions in it.
Voilà….!
I saw Dame Judith Anderson as Hamlet when I was a kid (googling her, I see that it was in 1970). I already knew the play well and had seen several productions previous to that. What I remember is that her being a woman seemed far less problematic to me than her being old.
A good idea: let’s leave Othello male (and white to boot!) but make him very old – an “extraneous body” in the young and sprightly Venetian navy! Actually, for good measure, let’s pair him with Mr. Desdemon. Iago can be a young aide-de-camp… or a black cleaning lady from the colonies…
In Shakespeare’s day, Otello would have been white. He would have been slightly swarthy, and dark-haired, but definitely white.
This a slap in Moorish Americans Community. Why here in 2021 is stupidity and ignorance is still allowed to carry on
You are politically incorrect Jacqueline: it’s American Community of Moorish Extraction !
Shoot me in the head! I don’t want to live in this world anymore.
The Feminist Social Justice Peloton is underway.
Oh, come on, you guys! Do you feel threatened by women? Scared of losing control ? I’m of the opposite opinion: I’ve always dreamt , in vain, to be totally ornamental in the arms of a beautiful woman in shining … deshabille… Actually I am all that except still can’t afford to be ornamental… As I understand it, the discussion is not as much about the inversion (of trends) as about the perversion (of taste) in the course of inversion. Those perversions should be noted not to subvert the salutary inversion but in effect to help it on its way.
Finally a sensible comment!
Sally
Yes – women are very threatening. My last workplace became dominated by women and became totally toxic. My current workplace has become dominated by women and is now totally toxic. I am not allowed to even take 10 minute breaks to eat anymore.
It’s a collective conspiracy to get rid of us.
I’m assuming Iago is also a woman?
“It” became Yaga (baba…)
while switching genitals around (Othella, Desdemono, Yaga [baba..]), they missed a rather obvious opportunity to cast Othella black as was the original Moor and put her in a wheelchair to boot. I love a comment on extraneous body. It suggests an attractive picture for a billboard: a black finger in a white bum… or vice-versa – depending on the audience niche…
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: „There is no such thing as an absurd production. Shows either work or they don‘t“.
This comes to mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPzmU6lWlBI&t=3640s