‘Othello’ to Be Reimagined as Black Lesbian in New Production by Royal Shakespeare Company
Acclaimed lesbian actress Sharon D. Clarke takes on the role in the new production opening next year.
The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced that lesbian theater actress Sharon D. Clarke will take on the title role of Othello in a new production scheduled to open in February 2027.
Directed by Monique Touko, the reimagining will see Shakespeare’s tragedy taken into a future threatened by the climate crisis, with Clarke as the center of military power in the role, according to Variety.
“Touko’s production centers on an unsanctioned marriage that becomes the fault line through which jealousy, suspicion and racial, sexual and class prejudice enter. The production incorporates movement and music,” Variety reports.
The publication notes this will be Clarke’s debut at the Royal Shakespeare Company. She’s won three Olivier Awards — the British equivalent of the Tonys. She’s starred in both West End and Broadway productions.
She previously worked on a reimagining of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, which set the family, usually Jewish Americans, in productions as Black Americans. Clarke won one of her Oliviers for that performance.
“The American dream became so visceral because you could see the American dream and the impossibilities of it for that family. I’m hoping now through this lens with Othello, you will have to see things differently,” Clarke, who brought the production to RSC, told The Guardian. “She is predominantly in a male environment, so how does she deal with that on a day-to-day basis? How does she keep her dignity and her strength and her power and her womanhood on display?”
The outlet notes that Clarke won’t be the first to play a Black lesbian Othello. Golda Rosheuvel, the out actress of Bridgerton, performed the role in 2018.
The casting announcement was part of the group’s 2026-2027 season reveal, led by co-artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey.
“We want to ensure that as many people as possible feel welcome at the RSC through the stories we choose to tell and the artists who tell them,” Evans and Harvey said in a joint statement, according to Variety.
Clarke said that she’ll be bringing her own lived experience with her in the role, which looks at Othello through misogynoir — which is a type of prejudice faced by Black women. She said that growing up, she was told, “You’re never going to work, you’re never going to get family and never going to fall in love.”
“I’m going to incorporate that within her,” Clarke told The Guardian. “She is the strong leader, but those vulnerabilities are still going to be there.”
