Othello, Theatre Royal Haymarket review – Toby Jones plays Shakespeare’s most notorious villain like a peevish middle manager

One of Shakespeare’s most notorious villains loses much of his malevolence in this starry reimagining of Othello. Here, Machiavellian Iago is played by well-loved screen actor Toby Jones, who gives him all the looming menace of a peevish middle manager leaving a pass agg note on the work fridge. When this Iago makes racist jokes about David Harewood’s statesmanlike Othello, the audience laughs loudly – uncomfortably so, unsure who they’re meant to be rooting for. Still, when the chuckles die down, War Horse co-director Tom Morris’s production grows into its horror, building into a deeply nasty tale of murder and manipulation.

Morris’s setting here is modern-day Italy: a world of contrasts, where the indoor space of lavish gilding and Conclave-esque scarlet-cloaked officials gives way to beachy outdoor landscapes where wealthy women cavort in stylish resortwear. First, Moorish general Othello must justify his secret marriage to Desdemona before this repressive city’s authorities, in scenes that feel cramped and stodgy on a small stage cluttered with gold picture frames. Then, a storm comes to shake everything up. Ti Green’s ingenious set design makes the pieces of this world rise into the air and clank together like the wind-tossed boats of the feared Turkish invaders, before vanishing and leaving Othello to celebrate both his marriage and his military victory on a sun-drenched stage.