Othello at the Theatre Royal Haymarket Review: Trust Issues, Toxic Men, and Toby Jones as the OG Traitor
Published on 5 November 2025
Tom Morris’s Othello takes a classic, unembellished approach — no modern-day updates, no flashy reinventions — just Shakespeare’s tragedy set against a minimalistic, gilded backdrop and the slow, inevitable unravelling of trust. The simplicity works: it lets Shakespeare’s jealousy-fuelled tragedy do all the talking.
So, what’s going on and who’s who? Set in the 1570s during the conflict between Christian Republic of Venice and the Muslim Ottoman Empire, Othello, a Moorish general, secretly marries Desdemona. At the heart of the play is Iago – basically a workplace diva, spitting feathers because Othello promoted Cassio over him and now plotting to ruin literally everyone’s lives. Kinda like Regina George from Mean Girls calling everyone a whore, but also reminiscent of those dusty middle-aged incels that you so often see lurking in the IG comments these days.
Toby Jones plays Iago as the perfect puppet master — manipulative, slippery, Machiavellian and always five steps ahead. He toys with his fellow soldiers like chess pieces, delighting in deception while repeatedly being called “honest Iago” — a phrase that becomes comically ironic. (Drink every time someone calls him honest and you honestly won’t make it to Act Five.) Jones plays him as Shakespeare’s OG Traitor — a master manipulator who’d dominate a Jacobean edition of the TV show. I’d put Lady Macbeth and Edmund from King Lear in there too for the lols.
David Harewood’s Othello begins composed and authoritative, only to spiral into paranoia with alarming speed. When doubt takes hold, he becomes tunnel-visioned — unable to see any truth beyond Iago’s poison. His transformation from noble general to broken man feels tragic precisely because it happens so fast.
Caitlin Fitzgerald’s Desdemona floats through the darkness like she’s wandered in from a yoga retreat — all flowing fabrics and calm grace, equal parts ethereal and Tilda Swinton in The Beach. Her steadfast ‘But Daddy, I Love Him’ energy makes Othello’s jealous outbursts feel even crueller. Vinette Robinson’s Emilia, meanwhile, storms in late and steals the show with her final, furious truth-telling — a “save the best till last” kind of performance.
Love, paranoia, racial prejudice, misogyny, reputation and revenge all burn vividly in Morris’s steady-handed production, and it proves how little human nature has evolved. Othello might be 400 years old, but weak men still slander innocent women, and insecure ones can be so quickly influenced that a candlewick of jealousy becomes a forest fire. The play captures the ugliness of suspicion and the fragility of love with devastating clarity. And at its centre, Toby Jones’s Iago — two-faced, three-faced, maybe even four (clearly a Gemini)— burns brightest as Shakespeare’s ultimate traitor.
Othello plays at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until Sat 17th January, book your tickets today.
By Hay Brunsdon
I've 15 years of writing and editorial experience, and starting working in the West End theatre industry in 2012. When not watching or writing about theatre I'm usually swimming, hiking, running, or training for triathlons in the Stroud valleys.