Setting revealed for new Shakespeare production

The creative team behind our new production of Othello at Stafford Castle this summer have revealed more about the setting of the show.

Director Clare Prenton’s production of Othello will be set in the Italy and Cyprus of the mid 1950’s with an elegant and filmic design by BAFTA Scotland nominated film and theatre designer Francis Collier and music by Craig Adams. Craig is already known to Stafford audiences as the Musical Director of the last five Rock ‘n’ Roll Pantomimes at the Gatehouse.

Othello Director Clare Prenton

Prenton’s collaboration with Gatehouse regular composer / arranger Craig Adams will explore Shakespeare’s music of the 1950s in both Italy and Cyprus contrasting the freedom and hedonism of the Venice with the claustrophobia of the military camp in Cyprus where Othello’s love for his new bride Desdemona is put under the microscope of jealous his supposed ‘true’ friend, the Machiavellian Iago whose lies set in motion a chain reaction of tragic events.

Clare Prenton who began her directing career at Regents Park Open Air Theatre as an assistant and who has directed open air Shakespeare productions for The British Shakespeare Company The RJ Williamson Company and Cambridge Shakespeare Festival is delighted to be back in the open air but this time with a tragedy.

She commented “I am really excited to have put this award winning team together. I have worked with Frances in Scotland and Craig in London, so for me to collaborate with these two talents in Staffordshire, is exciting. The opportunity to direct this might piece of work in such a wonderful setting is a privilege”

Clare, who was born and raised in Liverpool, but is now based in Scotland, is also delighted that friends and family plus her old English Literature teachers from the North West can come to see the play. “One of my first ever professional theatre jobs was directing a youth theatre workshop for the Young Vic Theatre in Staffordshire and the then Artistic Director Peter Cheeseman gave me some wonderful advice as a young director starting out 16 years or so ago, so it’s wonderful to be back in the area. Plus my children (they are only 6 and 9) are looking forward to its proximity to Alton Towers and the Monkey Forest once the show is up and running!” Prenton concluded.

Tickets for Othello are on sale now and can be booked by calling the box office on 01785 619080 or by visiting the website www.staffordshakespeare.com.

The show will run at Stafford Castle from Thursday 23rd June until Saturday 9th July 2016.