UK publisher Oberon Books has published Desdomona. This play, a re-imagining of William Shakespeare’s Othello, features writing by Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, lyrics by Malian musician Rokia Traoré and a foreword by theater director Peter Sellers.
Here’s more from the release: “Desdemona is an extraordinary narrative of words, music and song about Shakespeare’s doomed heroine, who speaks from the grave about the traumas of race, class, gender, war — and the transformative power of love. Toni Morrison transports one of the most iconic, central and disturbing treatments of race in Western culture into the new realities and potential outcomes facing a rising generation of the 21st century.”
The story focuses on the relationship shared between Othello’s wife and her African nurse Barbary. Morrison became inspired to write the play as a response to Sellars’ 2009 production of Othello. Desdemona first debuted in May 2011 at Vienna’s Theatre Azkent. Productions have ran in Belgium, the United States and Germany. In July 2012, Sellers directed the play at London’s Barbican Concert Hall.