Desdemona, A Play About a Handkerchief

Synopsis: Video recording of Paula Vogel’s play, a feminist reading of Shakespeare’s Othello and Wolfgang Bauer’s Shakespeare the Sadist which suggests Iago was right about Desdemona all along. The play imagines what the women of Othello are doing when they are not on stage. Vogel reverses the roles making Emilia religious and chaste and Desdemona a nymphomaniac who sleeps with every man except Cassio and spends time moonlighting at Bianca’s brothel. The play is directed for stage by Gloria Muzio.
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Video
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Recording date: 3 Dec 1993
Duration: 80 mins

Director

Gloria Muzio

Writer

Paula Vogel

Music

Randy Freed

Production Design

Derek McLane

Costume

Jess Goldstein

Cast

Notes: A videorecording of an earlier production, taped at the River Stage, Brooklyn, N.Y. in June 1985, is also available at the TOFT.
General: The play was first presented to the public as a staged reading at Cornell University in October 1987 and as a staged play at the Bay Street Theatre Festival, New York in July 1993.
Textual information: Dramaturg is Lynn M. Thomson.
Reviews: Ben Brantley ‘Iago’s Subterfuge Is Made the Truth’ in The New York Times (12/11/1993).

Name: Parker Hodges Productions
Address: USA
Notes: A production company making the video recordings of stage productions for the Theatre on Film and Tape (TOFT), New York

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