“Iago is a modern-day influencer. He exists beyond truth and lies.”
Ebony and alabaster, shadow and light, Eros and Thanatos in a world that has become nothing but gray areas, where fake news are everywhere around us… Oskaras Koršunovas looks at the tragedy of Othello through the prism of our societies devoured by fear and jealousy—this “green-eyed monster” which infiltrates the mind of the hero just like it does our screens. It’s a carnal play about desire, beauty, and fate. It’s also an eminently political play, which challenges our relationship to foreigners, to gender, to the other. By plunging our times and their postcolonial narratives into Shakespeare’s world, the Lithuanian director creates both distance and perspective. If passion, betrayal, revenge, and damnation come together in this sensual and sometimes violent choreography, Otelas also takes a step back to show us the extent of political manipulation within our modern worlds in which exclusion, exploitation, and xenophobia are still as present as ever. Control over language and narrative becomes here the raw material for delusion, doubt, and violence. An evil Oskaras Koršunovas more than ever enjoins us to fight!
Distribution
With Saulius Ambrozaitis, Deividas Batavicius, Gerda Ciuraite, Sofija Gedgaudaite, Vesta Rasa Grabštaite, Džiugas Grinys, Darius Gumauskas, Džiugas Gvozdzinskas, Julija Korpaciova, Digna Kulionyte, Oneida Kunsunga-Vildžiuniene, Darius Meškauskas, Migle Navasaityte, Karolis Norvilas, Alvyde Pikturnaite, Aurelijus Pocius, Domantas Starkauskas.
Text William Shakespeare
Direction Oskaras Koršunovas
Music Antanas Jasenka
Stage design Oskaras Koršunovas, Julija Skuratova
Choreography Vesta Rasa Grabštaite
Lights Eugenijus Sabaliauskas
Video Artis Dzerve
Costumes Julija Skuratova
Assistant direction Jokubas Brazys
Production
Production OKT/Vilnius City Theatre
With the support of the Lithuanian Council for Culture