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.”
Unwilling to be thrown out, the boy takes to the stage. Like an egalitarian Thomas Bowdler, he is on a mission to rewrite Shakespeare. Out must come the othering language, the insulting talk of the “beast with two backs”, and the implication that a union between Gabriel Akamo’s black Othello and Rayyah McCaul’s white Desdemona presents a problem. The boy wants an end of labels and an acceptance of possibility.
Stepping out of character as Desdemona, McCaul morphs into Cathy, a needy actor, grateful for getting her first gig in two years. She thinks she might be to blame for the disruption. Preparing a backstory in rehearsals, the actor imagined Desdemona had been pregnant with twins.
She hadn’t thought through the implications of bringing mixed-heritage children into the world, but here is Harris Cain’s Nothello stepping out of the audience to put her right. Joining him is Aimee Powell as his sister, Desdeknownow. She has spent the past four centuries auditioning for a part (“not too black, not too white”) that never comes her way.
Now is their time. In Mojisola Adebayo’s clever and joyful play – partly inspired by conversations with residents of Coventry, the home of 2 Tone – the twins wear down Alex Scott Fairley’s Iago and their would-be parents in order to stop the age-old repetition of racist tropes. They need a happy ending in order to be born.
It runs for only 75 minutes, but somehow Justine Themen’s production also finds time to comment on the death of George Floyd, gender fluidity and Covid (“Try being locked down for 400 years,” says Powell). Even more inclusive is the all-ages community cast, seamlessly melding with the professional actors in a show that is as bright and brainy as it is urgent.
At Belgrade theatre, Coventry, until 21 May.
