Atandwa Kani Instagram – As we enter our last week of Lara Foot’s brilliantly provocative adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, we thank those who have joined us on this journey and those who are yet to come. To view Othello as the violent black figure, written by a white man in 1603, leaves black people feeling truly underrepresented and misunderstood, objectified and fetishized. This version also challenges the complacency of white people who, for years, have felt comfortable with Othello being the brute black man who kills their precious white gem. Instead, in our production, we ask society to consider the brutal results of colonialism and the effects that racism has had on black people, not only in South Africa, but around the world.. The effects of such an inhumane system are still so evident today, mentally and physically..
Allowing Othello to express his internal turmoil in his own mother tongue, praying to his own God about his own doubts as a black man in a “white world”, humanizes him and asks the audiences to look at his heart and not only his color..
As we progress as a society, so should our understandings of such socio-political intricacies. We’re not Artists just to reinforce archaic notions and beliefs about race and racism.. If we can talk about racism, we should not be afraid to talk about the causes and enforcers of racism..
Thank you to uDabawo wam, uLara Foot, for daring to challenge, not only The revered Bard, but the minds and hearts of people who have never considered Othello as a human being..
I cannot wait to see YOUR versions of “Othello”. Don’t just talk about it, be about it…
📸 : @macpherson5716 | Posted on 26/Apr/2024 21:04:42
