Othello

The joy of being cancelled

20 November 2021 9:00 am

New York I’ve never met anyone called Othello, certainly not in Venice nor in Cyprus, but perhaps there are men…

Star quality: Mark Rylance as Iago at Shakespeare’s Globe

The gentle side of Bruckner: Rotterdam Philharmonic’s Prom reviewed

8 September 2018 9:00 am

It’s intelligent, enjoyable, beautiful to look at and funny in unexpected places, yet Othello at the Globe didn’t quite meet…

Ira Aldridge as Othello, painted in 1826 by James Northcote

Moor and more

31 August 2017 1:00 pm

In 1824 an ambitious teenage actor fled to England from his native New York where he had been beaten up…

Was there a cover-up over Shakespeare’s death?

23 April 2016 9:00 am

How did Shakespeare kick the bucket? Lloyd Evans considers the evidence

In 1600 Muhammad al-Annuri arrived in England, as the Moroccan ambassador, to propose an Anglo-Moroccan alliance. Shakespeare probably started writing Othello six months later

Gloriana and the Sultan — England’s unlikely alliance

2 April 2016 9:00 am

The idea for a mechanical cock was never going to work. In 1595 the English ambassador to Constantinople, Edward Barton,…

The Proms is taxpayers’ money well spent: it’s a national asset like fish and chips and the royal baby

18 July 2015 9:00 am

Make no mistake: the Proms, whose 2015 season was launched last night, would not, could not, exist without the BBC,…

The Heckler: Shakespeare's duds should be struck from the canon

16 May 2015 9:00 am

I love Shakespeare. But when he pulls on his wellies and hikes into the forest I yearn for the exit.…