Nothello review – clever and joyful, Shakespeare upended

Bright and brainy … l to r, Harris Cain, Rayyah McCaul, Gabriel Akamo, Alex Scott Fairley in Nothello. Photograph: Robert Day

We are reaching the climax of Othello and a young man in the audience is getting fractious. Every time Othello is characterised as “the Moor”, he shouts out. He is further infuriated by Iago’s degrading animal imagery.

An usher shushes him. “You’re spoiling it for everyone,” he says. The boy is quick to respond: “They’re spoiling it for me.”