Samurai Othello: Sharing and Discussion

New Earth Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe are bringing Othello to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on Tuesday 20 October, reimagined in medieval Japan. It's a work-in-progress sharing, so you're seeing the piece while it's still being shaped rather than a finished production. The evening runs for two hours, starting with the sharing itself and followed by a panel discussion with the cast, the creatives, and the cultural collaborators who helped build it.

The production takes its lead from the real-life story of Yasuke, the African samurai of the 16th century. By moving Othello to medieval Japan, the company is looking at what happens when Shakespeare meets the samurai—both as a popular culture genre and as part of Japanese history. The sharing is the culmination of a week of workshops, and the panel discussion that follows is open to the audience, so you'll have a say in where the piece goes from here.

It's part of the Shakespeare and Race Festival, which the Globe started in 2018 to open up conversations about race in Shakespeare's plays and in his era. The festival works through workshops, conversations, symposia and performances, and celebrates global majority artists, researchers and young people. Around it, the Globe also runs a free Anti-Racist Shakespeare webinar series and the One Globe First Book Fellowship.

Tickets are £5.00, and it starts at 7.00 PM at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the candlelit indoor theatre at Shakespeare's Globe in London. Between the sharing and the panel, it's a full evening's affair.