TRAGIC MAGIC

Clint Dyer's production of Shakespeare's 'Othello', the first by a Black director at the National Theatre, has a quality that suggests it will become a classic, writes Jessie Thompson

- Jessie Thompson

As I left Othello at the National Theatre, I overheard someone say to their friend: "Tragedies, man... everyone dies." But even if we knew how this was going to go, Clint Dyer's production the first by a Black director at this theatre creates a sense of the unexpected. Confident, intelligent and frightening, it heavily suggests we'll see something different, right from its gauntlet-wielding first tableau. Old posters of the play are projected onto the back wall. A man quietly cleans the stage. A clock ticks through the centuries, until we land back in 2022. History is breathing down our neck.