Acting students at Stratford-upon-Avon College are putting a spin on Shakespeare as they bring one of his most famous tragedies to the stage, but with a major twist.
Second year acting students will be performing in Othello, one of the bard’s much-loved tragedies. However, in a unique spin, the production will be set in a women’s prison and will be completely gender swapped. This means the traditionally male roles will be played as and by females and the same for the traditionally female roles.
Audiences in Stratford-upon-Avon are used to seeing new and different versions of Shakespeare’s work through the local, world-renowned Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). The College has taken inspiration from these types of reimagining’s for their latest offering.
Not only is the setting of a women’s prison a new concept for this play, but the role of Othello has also been very rarely played by a female: In the early 19th century, there were a handful of actresses who took up the role and in 2015 Smooth Faced Gentleman played the production with an all-female cast. However, in these previous productions the role of Othello was played by a female as a man. It was only as recently as 2018, that Golda Rosheuvel starred as Othello at the Liverpool Everyman as a woman. The college’s completely gender-swapped version however is playing Othello for the first time as a heterosexual woman; falling in love with a male Desdamona – in this case, Desdamono.
The students are very excited to be bringing this show to life. Shania Hayles, who is performing the title role is excited to be taking on this mantle: “I feel very honoured to be telling this incredible love story! The tragedy and downfall of this character through manipulation is heartbreaking and I feel so privileged to be playing as a female; it’s a fantastic opportunity.”
Student Corgan Holloway-Jones who is playing the part of Desdamono described why the gender swapped nature was so interesting to be a part of: “It changes the relationships and how those characters would act as their drives have shifted. My character was originally female however, in this version he is male and a prison guard, so the power dynamic has altered. It allows us to look at layers we had never thought of before.”
It has also given the students the chance to develop their acting techniques. Eve Bannon commented: “It’s a show which has so many elements: physical, naturalistic, dramatic. So it has given us as actors so many chances to develop skills in a short time. I’ve also had the chance to choreograph sections of the show, so I have even been able to develop teaching skills.”
To assist with creating this show, students were visited by Actors from the RSC – Tyreke Leslie and Eloise Secker – who led a workshop on understanding and delivering Shakespeare’s text.
Katherine Davies who is taking on the role of Iago found this session to be extremely helpful: “The workshop allowed us to learn to read between the lines, dissect the text and react, not just act. It has helped us all to understand more and further connect with our characters.”
Check out some of the students incredible rehearsal pictures
Director Louise Millward detailed why this particular production was chosen: “Within the second year of the extended diploma course we always put on a classical production, usually by William Shakespeare, and this year’s production is Othello. With some strong performers in this year group, we wanted to choose a play that would challenge them as actors both within the setting and changing genders of characters, so we choose a female prison as the majority of the cast are females and the themes of Othello are racial prejudice, manipulation and jealousy so a female prison seemed an obvious choice for the setting.
The actors have worked hard on this project, and it is very much a collaborative performance piece of theatre from them and myself, with a twist, we hope our audience will enjoy.”
Tickets are available for their performances in the College’s Willows Theatre on December 6th and 7th at 7pm here.
