General Othello has secretly married Desdemona, daughter of the Venetian senator Brabantio.

Iago, an officer harbouring a resentment towards Othello, enlists the help of Roderigo, a frustrated suitor of Desdemona. They wake Brabantio in the middle of the night with the news of his daughter's elopement. Brabantio takes the case to the senate where, learning that she has married Othello of her own accord, he disowns his daughter. Othello is immediately ordered to the Venetian colony of Cyprus to repel a threatened Turkish invasion. Desdemona sails with her husband, taking with them her companion Emilia, who is also Iago's wife, and Othello's lieutenant Michael Cassio, newly-promoted instead of Iago.

Once in Cyprus, Iago plants the suspicion in Othello's mind that Desdemona has been unfaithful to him with Cassio. He engineers a drunken brawl for which Cassio is blamed and dismissed by Othello. Desdemona intervenes on Cassio's behalf but her pleas to Othello for his reinstatement simply convince Othello further that Cassio is her lover.

Iago acquires a treasured handkerchief that belonged to Desdemona and uses it as 'proof' of the affair. Increasingly maddened by jealousy, Othello orders Iago to kill Cassio and smothers Desdemona himself. Emilia discloses her husband's plot and Othello, tormented by grief and remorse, kills himself. Iago, after murdering his own wife, is left to the justice of the Venetian state.

Time: approx. 30 minutes

This performance activity will help students understand the key story beats, and structure / form of the play. This will allow them to recognise and explore the key plot points before working with larger text selections. It’s best suited to a studio or hall but can be done in a classroom. You will need Othello in Ten Parts - Appendix A in the Resources section of this pack.

Warm up:

• Before you start, ask students to find a partner and ask them to say the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the word Othello. Invite them to share some of the things they know.
• Now, ask them to share the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the phrase The Moor of Venice. Are their responses different? Or are they the same? What might each title suggest about the story? Does either title make a judgement, and if so, what might we expect from the story and its characters? (If they already know the play well, invite them to consider this as if approaching the play for the first time.

The Story in Ten Parts:

• Split the class into groups of around four or five and give each group a different section of the story from the Othello in Ten Parts resource. In their groups, invite them to identify the most important part of their section – what we’d call the most important story beat. Now, ask them to bring that story beat to life physically with a freeze frame.
• Once they’ve done that, get them to think about the moment before their chosen story beat, and the moment after. They will have three images / freeze frames in total.
• Once they have created each of the three freeze frames, ask them to consider how they might connect them / move from one image to the next. How does this have the potential to tell the story too?
• Finally, ask them how they might incorporate the text or simple language phrases from the story section they have. As they are creating, ask them to have a clear beginning and end to their section, so that it becomes a clearly defined story in its own right.
• Once you have scaffolded the process, give them some additional sections. Invite them to go through the same process, reinforcing that any recurring characters should be played by different people, and that everyone has to be involved in every moment. After ten minutes, ask different groups to share sections so that you have the entire story.

Reflection Point:

Ask the students what they noticed:

• What different devices did they use to tell the story?
• What things did they understand?
• What things do they have questions about, with regards to the story?

Time: approx. 40 minutes

This performance activity will help students to explore a key speech from the play and begin to investigate the motivations of a key character.  It’s best suited to a studio or hall but can be done in a classroom. You will need Iago’s Soliloquy - Appendix B in the Resources section of this pack.

One word:

• Hand out the text to students, then ask them to place it face down in front of them. Explain that they have 20 seconds to find the most interesting word in the speech. There are no right or wrong answers!
• After 20 seconds ask them to speak each of their words aloud, altogether, so they can practice saying them. Do they notice anyone saying the same word as them? If so, they should go and stand with them.
• Now, ask students to each speak the word they have chosen in turn, asking them to really listen to what they hear. What do they understand the speech might be about based on the words selected?

Last words:

• Now, ask students to speak the last word on every line together. Treat the first time like a practice, asking them to repeat for a second time paying attention to what they hear.
• Invite them to feed back and consider if their understanding of the text has changed.
• Due to the form Shakespeare writes in, the last words of the line are often stressed, so this exercise can be useful to gain a sense of the thought / line; more broadly, when each last word is spoken together, it gives a sense of the ideas within the speech.

Sit and Stand:

• Ask students to find a chair and sit on it away from other students. They need to give themselves enough room to be able to stand and sit on their chair.
• Invite students to read aloud the soliloquy in unison. When they’ve finished, ask them if they have heard anything new from speaking the whole text.
• Now, explain they are going to do the same thing, encouraging them to work at their own pace, and not fall into unison. This time however, they are going to move between sitting and standing every time there is a new punctuation point. So, if they are sitting they will stand, and vice versa. Explain they can only speak when they have stopped moving between those two positions.
• After completing the exercise ask them:
  • What do they notice about the rhythm?
  • What tempo is it? Does it change?
  • If it is a fast rhythm or slow rhythm what might that say about how someone is feeling?
  • What can they infer about the intention or feelings of Iago?

Context:

• Now is a good time to offer students some context to the text: this is the first moment of direct address, or soliloquy to the audience, in the play. It’s a character sharing a plan to trick someone.

Speaking to Punctuation:

• Ask students to speak the text round the room; standing in a circle can help this, if there is space.
• Explain they will speak up to a punctation mark, then the next person will speak, and so on.
• As they do this ask them to think about what impact it might have if this was done with an audience.

Reflection Point:

• When you have completed the exercise, ask students to share back what they think. What effect does it have on the audience for them to know someone’s secret plan?

KEY QUESTION: Dramatic Irony

The device of dramatic irony is usually reserved for comedies, where the protagonist speaks to the audience about a plan or trick, making them complicit as the trick unfolds on stage. It’s like modern day prank videos!

When used in tragedies, dramatic irony is there to present the problem and show turmoil for the character. For example, Macbeth speaks to the audience in the first act of the play to grapple with the idea of killing the King.

Dramatic irony invites the audience to see the problem and empathise with the character. It is their story after all. That said, Iago is not the central character in Othello, although he does have 70% of the lines. So why does Shakespeare place the audience with Iago and not Othello from the top of the play?

Whose side is Shakespeare asking the audience to be on?

This question might be a good way of opening a conversation about the key complexities of this play with your students.

Time: approx. 50 minutes

This activity uses an exercise from the rehearsal room to explore the relationship between Iago and Othello. It’s best suited to a studio or hall but can be done in a classroom. You will need Act 4 Scene 1 - Appendix C in the Resources section of this pack.

Warm Up:

• Ask students to get into pairs, deciding who will be X and who will be Y. Xs will speak Othello’s text, and Ys will speak Iago’s text.

• Ask them to speak the text through. Once they have, ask them to talk about what they noticed, and what made sense. Make sure they know they don’t have to understand everything!

• Ask students to repeat the Sit and Stand exercise from Activity 2. What do they notice about the rhythm?

Context:

• At this point, offer students context to the scene: Othello has been convinced Desdemona is having an affair with the dishonoured Michael Cassio. Iago has framed a conversation that Othello overheard, thinking Cassio was speaking about Desdemona, and he has now seen Cassio give his mother’s handkerchief (the one he gifted to Desdemona) to Bianca, Cassio’s other love interest.

Problem Solving:

• Now, with that context, ask students to find an object that they can pass between them. This could be a ball, or even a pencil case. Explain that every time one of them names a problem, they need to pass the object to the other person. For example, “unauthorised kiss” could be a problem, so the object will be passed as it is named. When they’ve finished, ask them to reflect on how many problems were mentioned.
• After this, ask them to speak the text again, passing on the object for each problem named, but this time, if a line solves a problem ask them to say the world ‘Solved” after the line that solves it.
• Discuss with your students: how many times are problems solved in the scene? Who is presenting problems the most? What might that say about the characters?
• Finally, give each pair ten minutes to consider how these discoveries might help them stage the scene. Encourage them to consider how they present these two characters and show their intentions in the scene. A big consideration is how to present the moment when Othello falls or collapses. Most productions explore this like he is having a seizure – will they choose this way? How else could they do it?
• After ten minutes, invite a couple of groups to share their interpretations. As students watch each one, ask them to think about how groups have decided to present this scene. What do they understand about the relationship at this point in the play? What part of the scene feels complicated? Why?

Reflection Point:

• Why might Shakespeare choose to have Iago not help Othello when he collapses? Consider the Key Question from Activity 2 around the audience's relationship with Iago. Encourage students to consider how they might feel if they have been complicit with Iago’s plan, and seen so much of it unfold. How might an audience’s own accountability be tested by seeing Iago not help Othello in the final moment of the scene?
• Finally, can students think of other modern examples that this final moment in the scene speaks to?

PRODUCTION NOTES: The Impact of Language

Throughout rehearsals, the company’s focus was on the impact of language: how it might conjure things within the minds of characters on stage, and how that language can help to build imagery for an audience. The set itself is divided between the real world and that of a mindscape beyond the proscenium arch.

Time: approx. 40 minutes

Sensitive Content

Before starting this exercise, students might find it useful to know that it speaks of Othello’s lived experience, and part of that experience was a period where he was enslaved. Of course, you will know your students well and be able to gauge how much support they might need around this topic, and how much it might need to be unpacked. This exercise can be framed with a discussion prior to, or following it, to support students' sensitivity to the complexity of the subject.

This activity uses an exercise from the rehearsal room to explore Othello’s lived experience. It’s best suited to a studio or hall but can be done in a classroom. You will need the Text Scraps – Appendix D and Act Scene 1 Scene 3 - Appendix E in the Resources section of this pack.

HISTORICAL INSIGHT: Black and British

At the time this play was written, Britain had yet to monopolise enslavement of west Africans. Most recent research has developed our understanding of Shakespeare’s London to not be a homogenous white space. Perspectives around the diversity of historical Britain have been opened up with Professor David Olusoga’s book and documentary series Black and British, which discusses how Afro-Romans were part of Britain's rich landscape, placing black settlers in Britain during the Roman period.

Text Scraps:

• Organise your students into an even number of groups. Give each group one of the Text Scraps from Appendix D. Ideally, you need an even number of groups with Text Scrap A and Text Scrap B.

• Ask each group to read through the lines and spend 30 seconds talking about what they notice and what they think each of the five lines means.
• Then ask each group to create a tableau (frozen picture) to physically present each line. So, they will eventually have five tableaux in total. They only have three minutes to do this, so they need to work quickly and instinctively.
• Now, ask the groups to pair up with a group who had the alternative Text Scrap to them. Invite each group to share their short pieces, encouraging other students to really observe what they see.

• Once they have done this, ask them to share some of the things they noticed. Offer the context that these are all things Othello mentions about his life. What sort of life do they think he might have had?

Othello's Life:

• Now, each of the paired-up groups should take a look at the extract from Act Scene 1 Scene 3 in Appendix E.

• Give each group five minutes to work out a way to transition from each image, identifying one person to speak Othello’s text. Some helpful prompts to encourage them to think about how you get from one idea to the other might be:

• What feeling do you want to convey or express?
• How could you use the transition to help that?
• How could you use space to convey this is the story of Othello’s life?
• What do we understand about people’s journeys through life?

• At the end of the five minutes ask them to share to the other groups in the room. Ask them to consider what was similar? What was different? Afterwards, open up a discussion. Some useful discussion points might be:
• What stood out?
• What sort of world they think this is?
• What might Othello feel about his life?

And as an extension:

• How much violent imagery is there in the story?
• What might that mean for the way Othello understands the world?

Reflection Point:

Following on from this activity, you might want to facilitate a group discussion about the impact of war and enslavement. Both experiences frame the significance of someone’s life, and the threshold people need to cross to view their enemy, or the enslaved individual, as less than human. Records show soldiers dehumanise the enemy forces in order to fight. Similarly, enslaved Africans received similar treatment, often being bestialised. How might either experience impact how someone might interact in the society they are in now? Especially if that society exists away from conflict or frames your interactions with reminders of your difference/ otherness?

PRODUCTION NOTES: The Theme of Colour

The play speaks to many different themes, but a central theme of the play is colour, and all that that simple word evokes. This is echoed in the production’s set design by Judith Bowden. Inspired by the twentieth century paintings of Pierre Soulages, the set’s floor and some walls have heavy textured paint, with vibrant warm colour underneath, then darker colours on top: so, what an audience starts to see is dark and light in the design. The director Tim Carroll’s ambition for the production was to centralise the language of dark and light, making it the key focus.

Time: approx. 60 minutes

Sensitive Content

Before starting this exercise, students might find it useful to know that it speaks of Othello’s lived experience, and part of that experience was a period where he was enslaved. Of course, you will know your students well and be able to gauge how much support they might need around this topic, and how much it might need to be unpacked. This exercise can be framed with a discussion prior to, or following it, to support students' sensitivity to the complexity of the subject.

This activity uses an exercise from the rehearsal room to explore rhythm. It’s best suited to a studio or hall but can be done in a classroom. You will need Act Scene 1 Scene 2 - Appendix F in the Resources section of this pack.

Preliminary Discussion:

With this production’s focus on language, it might be useful for students to consider the responsibilities they might have for a company and audience if they were directing the production. One of the most frequently used words within the play is “moor”, which features over 45 times. Is this an intentional choice by Shakespeare?

Shakespeare developed the play from a short story in a collection called Hecathmithi, by Giraldi Cinthio. In the original short story, the character of Othello wasn‘t given a name. So, Shakespeare has chosen to name him, but then have characters use his name infrequently, instead often using insults to describe him. This production also has a predominantly white cast, meaning very few actors of the global majority have been cast. All this helps to highlight how Othello is not only different because he has migrated to Venice, but because of his skin tone.

If students were making these decisions as directors, how might they consider exploring otherness / race within their production? Would they make the same choices as our current production, or would they do things differently?

Ask them to discuss what impact they might want to have on an audience. Encourage them to consider what might be the experience of the company, and audience, if they made the same choices as the current production. They could especially focus on what might be the experience for those individuals of the global majority, performing and watching? Finally, ask them to consider if they should keep ‘moor’ as a word, or change it? What might that do to the story and its themes?

Pass the Click:

• Ask students to stand in a circle, and explain they are going to pass a click around the circle (for those who cannot click a clap will work just as well). Explain that each person will always perform two clicks: one to receive and one to pass it on.

• Once it has made its way around the circle, ask them to see if they can do it again, but keep it at a regular pace. As it becomes regular, encourage them to change direction, and pass it across the circle.

• When everyone feels consistent, invite students to find a partner, and explain they are going to do the same thing, but passing the click with just their partner. After a couple of minutes, ask them: did anything change? (They may mention it became monotonous or boring – this is fine, as it leads into the next stage of this exercise.)

• Now, introduce different circumstances as they pass the click between them. They could try clicking as:

• A newly married couple
• A couple who have been married for some time
• A General and their subordinate
• A General and their subordinate (but the subordinate is playing to trick the General)

Between each scenario, ask them to discuss what they noticed. Some useful prompts are:

• Did the rhythm change? If so, how?
• Did the speed or timing of the “conversation” change based on the scenario?
• What did you notice about the body, and the amount of space you took up?
• How might rhythm indicate emotion?

Playing the Thoughts:

Shakespeare is always directing us with rhythm, so what does the rhythm give us, as we explore text? This part of the activity will require enough copies for each student of Act 1 scene 2, or Appendix F.

Start by handing out a copy to each person and ask them to focus on Othello’s first speech.

• First ask them to move through space as they say the words out loud. What did they notice?
• Now, ask them to explore moving through the space, with a shift of direction on every comma, and a sharp turn on everything that indicates a complete thought (e.g. a full stop, question mark, exclamation mark). What do they notice about the rhythm? What might that say about how Othello feels?
• As an extension activity, ask students to now not pay full attention to punctation. Can they try the same exercise, but work out where the thoughts are without paying attention to the punctuation? How many thoughts does Othello have in this first speech? After a couple of minutes, ask them to share back, and see what they notice. What does playing the thoughts give us?
• Next, ask them to organise themselves into groups of four, and ask them to cast themselves as the parts in the extract. Explain they are going to speak the text to each other, but not to think too much about the rhythm of the text - just to slow it down and really make eye contact as they deliver the text. What do they hear? What do they notice?
• As before, when they were looking at just the first speech, explain that they are this time paying attention to the rhythm, moving when they speak, shifting on commas, and sharp turning on something that indicates the end of a thought – but for the whole extract. What have they discovered?

Reflection Point

Bring students together for some reflection. What do they notice from the exercise? Did any character’s rhythm or length of thoughts change? In this particular scene, Othello’s is the only one that changes: what could this mean? How might this highlight his idea of being an outsider?

PRODUCTION NOTES: Code-Switching

Whilst in rehearsals, the company explored lots of exercises around verse speaking. The focus was encouraging actors to notice how changes in punctuation or thought might indicate a change in mood or story. The fact that Othello’s rhythm changes during the same scene, whereas others stay the same, might speak to the idea of his otherness, and his need to code-switch.

Code-switching in this context is where someone modifies their behaviour, to manage expectations and their own experience in space. For example, the individual might feel the need to present more professionally, as they are potentially more prone to being stereotyped.

Time: approx. 20 minutes

This activity uses an exercise from the rehearsal room to explore language. It’s best suited to a studio or hall but can be done in a classroom. You will need the Text Scraps - Appendix G in the Resources section of this pack.

Othello was being written at the point where exploration into the “New World” was happening. How we speak about heritage and skin tones today has its origins in the 1600’s.

The play seems to be exploring just that: what it means to be black in a white world. The complexity of this, is that the writer himself was white, as were the majority of the people playing the role, donning black make-up to play Othello. It wasn’t until 1959 that the RSC had its first black actor play the role, and really not until the early 1990s was the role only played by black actors. It’s important to acknowledge that this language and depiction of a black man comes with a long history of assumptions, embedded stereotypes, and misunderstood interpretations of blackness. So, how do we look at this play for what it is, and acknowledge its history, instead of what it is not?

• Place the Text Scraps from Appendix G face down. It’s best to print them so that each word or phrase has its own sheet of paper. Alternatively, you could have words displayed on the white board, although these should only be displayed when students are ready to start this exercise.
• Ask students to find a partner, and to label themselves X and Y. Explain that Xs are going to guide their Ys around the room. Their goal is to find all the positive words. Every time they find one, they must say it in a neutral tone to their partner.
• Each Y will have their eyes closed. Ask them to think about what type of person they start to imagine based on the words they hear.
• Give them two minutes to do this process. Once they have finished, give them a moment to reflect, and then share who or what they started to imagine with their partner.
• Now swap over. Ask Ys to guide their partners around the room, looking for complicated words. Again, they must say the words they find in a neutral tone to their partner. What do Xs begin to imagine, with the words that are being presented to them?
• Again, give them two minutes to do this process, then ask them to reflect and then share. Is it different to what their partner imagined?
• Now ask the entire group to organise the positive words on one side and the complicated words on the other. What do they start to see?
• Now ask them to add the word “moor” after the positive words , e.g. noble moor. Does it change the meaning or idea behind the words?
• Explain that this modifying of ‘moor’ is how these words are often contextualised in the play.
• Finally, ask students to think about words Othello says about himself. Give them a minute to organise the words into two categories, words he says about himself, and words others say about him.
• Then, reflect on their choices. What words did they attribute to Othello? What words did they attribute to others?
• After this reflection reveal “Tranquil mind”, “Rude in speech” and “Little blessed with the soft phrase of peace” are the phrases Othello says about himself. What might this say about how Othello views himself in the play?

Reflection Point:

How might this language shape an audience’s perception of Othello? Ask students if they recognise any of these words in the context of them speaking to racial tropes that exist now?