The Royal Shakespeare Company has cast Sharon D. Clarke in the title role of “Othello,” with Monique Touko directing a production that relocates Shakespeare’s tragedy to a climate-threatened future and places a Black lesbian in the seat of military power at its center.
The production opens in the Swan Theatre on Feb. 13, 2027 and runs through April 3.
Clarke, who has won the Olivier Award three times, makes her RSC debut in the role. 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.
The announcement forms part of the RSC’s 2026–27 season reveal from co-artistic directors Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey, who also confirmed that Rufus Norris will direct the company for the first time. Norris helms the world premiere of “Brock’s Mill,” a new play by RSC writer-in-residence Stewart Pringle, opening in The Other Place on March 26, 2027 and running through May 8. The drama follows Bernard, a retired stop-motion animator whose account of his own professional past begins to fracture four decades on from his career at Bluebell Studios. Animation for the production is by Astrid Goldsmith.
