Shakespeare Bulletin

This article reflects upon the practice of active watching and witnessing with 'new' eyes (and ears) experienced by the author as an audience member for the Münchner Kammerspiele Othello, directed as part of the RSC's 'Complete Works' year by Luk Perceval from an adaptation by the Turkish-born German scriptwriter/author, Feridun Zaimoglu, and his collaborator Günter Senkel. The essay's line of inquiry is particularly preoccupied with the relation of words - in this case, the shockingly abusive and violent German 'immigrant slang' Othello spoke in this production (where the Moor was 'Chocco' and Desdemona, 'cunt') - to performance, and the relation of the act of re-viewing a performance between words and watching. While the study also attends to the production's visual elements (set, costumes, and actors-as-characters), it is this new, 'charged' language that remains its focus, prompting questions as to how spectators view a text (in this case, one which may be read as a 'new' Othello, or even a new play altogether) and how, by extension, productions such as this 'wordless' Othello challenge the viewing position to which the RSC's audience is accustomed. Considering this position as one which oscillates between performing bodies and words, the article repeatedly questions how the audience of the production were 'supposed to look' (particularly at the racism and misogyny this production's contemporary demotic imposed on the play), ultimately leaving many of the questions surrounding the role of the spectator in "making" Shakespeare in this festival at the RSC largely unanswered.

Othello,Münchner Kammerspiele,RSC,Complete works,German,Text,Performing bodies,Spectatorship,Watching,Language