Othello – Derby Theatre Review (2026)
★★★☆☆
Anthony Almeida’s Othello at Derby Theatre has enough barbed wire, bass and live video to stage a small invasion. There are moments of genuine greatness here, and others that pull you straight out of the play. When Shakespeare has already written Othello's psychological torment so brilliantly, why does the production keep trying to do the work for him?
Othello, a respected army commander, has secretly married Desdemona. His junior officer Iago, furious at being passed over for promotion, persuades him that his new wife is having an affair with his lieutenant Cassio. As the lies accumulate, Othello turns against the woman he loves, with devastating consequences for everyone around them.
Almeida moves the action to the Falklands War, and I can see the appeal. Military ranks give the characters a clear pecking order, Cassio’s public demotion becomes genuinely humiliating, and Othello’s position as a Black commander in 1980s Britain adds another layer to his standing within the army. Natasha Jenkins’ barbed-wire set gives the barracks an oppressive identity, eventually closing into a cage. However, the script still mentions Turkey and Cyprus while the production points us toward the Falklands. A few changes to the script would have stopped me from questioning where we were supposed to be.
Dwane Walcott and Maanuv Thiara are at their best together. Walcott’s Othello knows he is a leader; Thiara’s Iago knows precisely how to make that confidence work against him. Thiara gives us a charming conspirator, the sort of man who can plant a suspicion while appearing to do you a favour. Their conversations feel natural, and those are the moments I leaned in. Unfortunately, the opening races through the groundwork for Iago’s resentment at an almost unintelligible pace. If you don’t catch why he wants Othello destroyed, the play loses its entire mechanics.
The biggest problem is Othello’s transformation. At the end of Act One, his feelings towards Desdemona seem to turn almost on the spot. I wanted Iago’s suggestions to work their way under his skin, one poisonous drop at a time. Instead, the production delivers a spectacular eruption without giving the jealousy and manipulation time to develop. Walcott plays the loving husband and the furious soldier exceptionally well. But the production doesn’t show us the journey between those two men.
Some of Shakespeare’s language is beautifully handled, with actors allowing the poetry to build the images and emotion. Elsewhere, performers seem determined to prove they can PERFORM Shakespeare, firing richly descriptive passages out in compressed bursts. I couldn’t understand whole stretches of dialogue. If the audience cannot make out the words, the meaning disappears with them. Fast delivery doesn’t automatically create urgency; sometimes it merely means that an actor has reached the end of the speech before we’ve had a chance to understand the beginning.
There’s plenty worth admiring in the staging. Erin Guan’s live video is especially good when Cassio drunkenly fights opponents we cannot see onstage but can follow from a bird’s-eye camera view. Suddenly, the screen gives us information the stage is withholding. And I’m not one for video screens on stage usually!
Phoebe Smyth’s Desdemona and Rebecca Banatvala’s Emilia provide the evening’s clearest emotional connection. Their bedroom conversation gives their friendship and competing loyalties the attention that the military world rarely affords them, and Emilia’s final stand is genuinely affecting. At one point, for some reason, the pair sing Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World. It goes on too long, adds very little to our understanding of either woman and feels like an unnecessary translation of feelings Shakespeare has already put into words. I’d rather hear the text.
The production does get the ending right. Cutting the usual aftermath and stopping with Othello’s suicide leaves the violence unresolved; nobody arrives to tidy up the consequences or reassure us that order has been restored. It’s stark and politically pointed. That kind of confidence is exactly what I wanted more of.
This is an interesting, visually ambitious Othello with some wonderful performances and some genuinely inventive ideas. I enjoyed it, particularly when the actors were allowed to hold the stage using nothing more than their voice and bodies to tell a powerful story. The green-eyed monster is certainly onstage; I just wish they’d given it time to grow.
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