Monday, May 21, 2007

Inspired Casting

Thumbing through the Culture magazine of the Sunday Times yesterday over cereal and coffee, I came across an interview with Tim McInnerny about his forthcoming role as Iago in the Globe’s new production of Othello. It was fairly predictable stuff: blah, blah, Blackadder, blah, blah, proper actor actually. But then I read something that got me rather excited, something that had passed me by up until now – I read that the Othello to McInnerny's Iago will be played by a certain Eammon Walker, best known, to me anyway, as Kareem Said from the bonkers HBO prison series Oz.

How fantastic is that! Shakespeare with added shankings! Or something. Possibly. I'm slightly loathe to admit it, but I used to be a teeny bit obsessed with this show and how it consistently managed to be so, so wrong, yet so oddly watchable at the same time. I'm really looking forward to seeing him tackle the role and think the Globe should give serious thought to extending their HBO inspired casting further. How about Six Feet Under's Rachel Griffiths as Lady Macbeth? Or James Gandolfini, Tony Soprano himself, in doublet and hose?

PS: There will be slightly less theatre this week due to the stubborn insistence of people I know on having birthdays and warming their houses and such like.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're not alone in your Oz-love. That was one messed up show, though I lost track of it ages ago as Channel 4 kept moving it about.

Interval Drinks said...

Yes, I stopped watching too after Channel 4 moved it to stupid o'clock at night. Never found out how it all finished.

Statler said...

I'm actually more excited by the Donmar production later in the year with Chiwetel Ejiofor as Othello and Ewan McGregor as Iago.

Interval Drinks said...

You have a point, while the prospect of seeing the chap from Oz in the role has novelty appeal, the Donmar production does sound amazing.