Friday 25th April, 6:00pm
York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium
YISF are honoured to present the world premiere of a new play by the Ukrainian writer and director Olga Annenko.
Codename Othello is a reworking of Shakespeare’s story, from a current perspective.
Olga says of the play: “If we talk about the importance of this project for me, then, in short, it is an opportunity to talk about war and some of its hidden manifestations, such as PTSD and other psychological disorders. All this, as well as the complexity of the ordinary world, with its tricks, makes the life of a person who has returned from war impossible and unhappy.”
Finalist of the 3rd Ukrainian directorial work competition: Another Othello for the Kyiv National Operetta Theatre (2020), this play started as a one scene springboard that explores the impact of the ongoing war on Ukrainians. This first scene, when Nicoleta Cinpoeş came across it, was so raw and rich in theatrical vision and potential that it sparked not only our interest but also the quest for the author and commitment to see the project through. With the generous help of translator Daria Moskvitina, based in Zaporizhzhia, and a Sunday afternoon online meeting, we moved from a fragment and a dream to meeting Olga and rekindling her creative buzz to complete the play in a few weeks, so Daria has time to translate it for the world premiere in our festival.
Codename Othello takes a familiar story and places it in the world of today. It is not Shakespeare’s play, yet is inseparable from it.
Olga Annenko is a creative professional with a career spanning theatre direction, screenwriting, and playwrighting. She holds membership in the Union of Ukrainian Theatre Workers and served as a lecturer in screenwriting at the Academy of Cinema and New Media. Annenko graduated from the Drama Theatre Directing Department at Karpenko-Karyi University in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Her achievements include winning prestigious drama competitions such as Drama.ua, the Batumi International Festival of Monodrama, Eurodram, and Contemporary Play Week, among others.
Annenko is also celebrated as the author of the collection ‘The First’, featuring plays and short stories. Recognized among PEN’s notable books of the year, it also emerged as a finalist for the Ukrainian Literary Award ‘First Swallow’.
Daria Moskvitina is a Shakespearean scholar and translator from Ukraine. Her main interests are related to Shakespeare in the USA and Ukraine, on page, stage, and silver screen. She co-authors a Shakespeare-dedicated Telegram channel Шекспір сказав… (Shakespeare said…) in Ukrainian.
This staged reading of Codename Othello will be directed by Philip Parr, working with actors from the York theatre community.
£5 Standard
£5 Pass It On! (purchase a ticket for a member of our refugee and asylum seeker community who would otherwise be unable to attend this event)
**All tickets purchased online come with a 10% processing charge. Tickets purchased in person are not subject to this charge but availability of tickets is not guaranteed.
