Staging Desdemona in African time: A conversation with Peter Sellars

Abstract

For the past 40 years, Peter Sellars has been one of the most innovative, eclectic and prolific directors in Western theatre. A deeply cultivated and politically committed practitioner whose vision and craft span a multitude of widely divergent theatrical traditions, genres and styles, Sellars has established his international reputation as a polymath in the performing arts. With more than 100 productions to his name, including community-based, transnational and transcontinental work, Sellars is known worldwide for his contemporary interpretations of canonical plays and operas that combine radical imagery, technical virtuosity, structural rigour, intellectual depth, social critique and moral intent. In this interview, he shares details about his collaboration with African American writer Toni Morrison and Malian musician Rokia Traoré in the creation of Desdemona (2012), a cross-cultural adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello, talking about theatre as ritual, directorial choices, acting as channelling and intertextuality.