Performance review: Hamlet by John Haidar

Abstract

that no matter how hard we try we cannot unshackle this play from the virulent racism that it contains and reveals? Are we as powerless as Desdemona, as powerless as the mob? As we came closer to the end, I found myself almost wishing for a different ending, a daring challenge to the text on a major UK stage, but it was not to be. We still seem to be incapable of this, still caught in that same 400-year-old ending, in contrast to several non-Anglophone productions. The circus goes on and on, as exemplified by the projected dates at the start, and as it was in the beginning, in 1604, so it is in 2022, the latest offshoot in the eternal merry-go-round. Except, it isn’t really merry anymore, is it? The lady sitting next to us expressed her extreme displeasure at the ending. Questioned as to why, she argued that the production ‘had left out several beautiful lines that are part of Othello’s final speech.’ If anything, this reaction exemplifies the entrapment of Othello, mummified by text, theatre history, and expectation. Now, if this production of Othello was intended to provoke the kind of questions and topics we’ve raised above, it was a brilliant production. I wonder though if that was its intent.