VOLTA presents OTHELLO by William Shakespeare Directed by Liam Hourican

Shakespeare’s gripping story of love, jealousy, betrayal and revenge comes to the National Opera House with Volta, Ireland’s premier classical theatre company.

In the most serene republic of Venice, an heiress to a huge fortune causes a scandal by eloping with a highly unsuitable man. Desdemona has eschewed the high-society dandies and fallen in love with Othello, one of her father’s friends. Her lover is not only not an aristocrat, but he is a Moor, a black African and a decorated soldier.

To this patriarchal, deeply exclusionary society, the romance can only be explained by bewitchment. But to her father’s shame and rage, Desdemona reveals the only spell was the beauty of Othello’s language and his gift for storytelling. The Duke of Venice gives his blessing to the match and it seems that true love has won the day. Unbeknownst to the happy couple, however, destructive forces seethe around them: Othello’s right-hand man, the racist, misogynistic Iago, has been passed over for promotion by the Moor, and now sees a chance to wreak a terrible revenge…