David Harewood on returning to 'Othello'

Nearly 30 years after starring as Othello at the National, star of stage and screen David Harewood is returning as Shakespeare’s complex tragic hero.

Summary

• David Harewood is returning to the role of Othello for a third time following performances at the Swan Theatre in Worcester and National Theatre
• On screen Harewood has starred in Homeland and Supergirl
• Harewood has also written a memoir and starred in several documentaries including David Harewood on Blackface

Most actors spend their whole careers waiting for the opportunity to play an eminent role such as Shakespeare’s Othello. But for David Harewood, the part has come around not once, not twice, but three times. The first was over 30 years ago at the Swan Theatre in Worcester; six years later, he became the first Black actor to perform the part at the National Theatre. He now returns as Shakspeare’s tragic hero in the West End and says that, despite the long gap, the lines have come back surprisingly easily.

“But I have changed, so my relationship to the part and the lines has changed,” says the Homeland and Supergirl actor. “It’s a lot more complex than I thought it was going to be because of that. I’m seeing a lot more in the text and the part, and obviously I don’t want to repeat what I did before.”

Harewood says that this Othello, which is directed by Tom Morris as part of a Shakespeare series with producer Chris Harper over the next five years, will be influenced by our post-MeToo, post-Black Lives Matter world, which he hopes will give it a “fresh relevance”. Specifically, Harewood says he will be re-examining Othello’s relationship with Desdemona, with the cast and creative team speaking for many hours about how to empower the female characters in the play and not present them as victims.

Harewood also recognises how approaching the character at 60 means his understanding of love has changed: “I've got two kids and my whole attitude to love, what love means, and what love is is very different.”

He continues: “Caitlin FitzGerald, who plays Desdemona, is a wonderful actress, and we have a fantastic relationship. I would love to apologise to Claire Skinner [who played Desdemona in the National Theatre run] because I know I was balling and screaming at her for the majority of the second half of the play. I’m trying not to do that this time because I don’t think Othello stops loving Desdemona, and that’s the tragedy of the part. As a young man it was just, ‘let’s be angry.’”

Instead, he says, “I’m trying to find a way of playing it that suggests references to my own trauma and life, but doesn’t require me to dig into the well of pain as much.”

Harewood has openly discussed his struggles with mental health in the media and a series of documentaries, including David Harewood: Psychosis and Me and David Harewood on Blackface, the latter exploring how the presentation of Black people within popular culture has helped to encourage racist stereotypes — as well as damage his own identity.

With Harewood’s personal life being in the limelight for the last few years (his memoir Maybe I Don't Belong Here: A Memoir of Race, Identity, Breakdown and Recovery was published in 2021), he says he’s stepping back from making documentaries: “I felt that I was using a lot of my own trauma to explore some of these subjects.”

For now, Harewood is focusing on his screen and stage career, as well as his position as RADA president alongside his vice president Cynthia Erivo (in his time at the drama school, presidents weren’t very visible, which is something he is keen to change). This year, he returns to the screen in new legal drama Pierre for Channel 4, as well as a film that comes out at Christmas called Zero A.D.. But, at the moment, he is concentrating on Othello.

He says he is conscious of avoiding certain “exaggerations” that have been a part of characterisations of Othello in the past, adding: “I feel as though there’s a whole generation of actors who have had to reinvent this part.”

On his last portrayal of Othello, Harewood says: “There was so much pressure on me then being the first Black Othello, and having broadsheet newspapers write quite imaginatively about ‘who the hell is David Harewood? And why isn’t Brian Cox playing the part?’ Saying that it was political correctness run wild. Walking out with that history on my back, I was so determined not to put a foot wrong. I was carrying a lot of baggage, but I don’t have any of that now.”

He finds it frightening to see the parallels between the spread of disinformation in Othello, and what is happening in current society. “We live in a world where that is happening constantly on our mobile phones, on the internet, on the television. [In this production], we're trying to give everything a relevance that speaks to today.”

He continues: “I've always thought that theatre has to speak to now rather than exist as a museum piece. What makes Shakespeare so universal is that you can constantly update [his plays]. We're all excited about it, and I think the audience should have every right to be excited.”

Harewood recognises that part of that pull is the show’s casting. Along with himself and FitzGerald, the cast also includes Luke Treadaway as Cassio and Vinette Robinson as Emilia, with Toby Jones starring as the manipulative Iago. “Toby's darkly comic and you can already see in his performance an entertainer who is dangerous because he appears to be getting away with everything he says he's going to do,” he says. “So the tragedy almost immediately presents itself and it's a sort of slow-motion car crash that the audience is in on because of the actions of one man.”

When asked about whether he has his eye on any of Shakespeare’s other meaty roles, Harewood quips: “It’s not like I sit around reading Shakespeare plays.” However, he does admit: “There’s the Scottish one, I’d love to do that. Hamlet — Giles [Terera] has just done a fantastic one at Chichester. Lear, I’d love to do.” He pauses. “Now I’m the right age to do those big ones.”

Book Othello tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the November 2025 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: David Harewood. (Courtesy of production). Inset: with Claire Skinner in the National Theatre production of Othello and with cast members Toby Jones and Caitlin FitzGerald. (Photo by Mark Douet and courtesy of production)