Desdemona trailer

Peter Sellars on Desdemona

Desdemona trailer

Peter Sellars on Desdemona

Malian singer/songwriter Rokia Traoré and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison, two women of African and African American origin, come together to create Desdemona, an intimate and profound conversation between Shakespeare’s Desdemona and her African nurse Barbary, from beyond the grave. Moving beyond centuries of colonialism and racism, two women share stories, songs and hope for a different future.

Toni Morrison transports one of the most iconic, central, and disturbing treatments of race in Western culture into the new realities and potential outcomes facing a rising generation of the 21st century. Rokia Traoré creates a musical texture that includes traditional African instruments, the kora and ngoni, creating an intimate performance that allows the audience to connect deeply with the two women who have the microphone at last.

Desdemona is commissioned by: Wiener Festwochen, Theatre Nanterre-Amandiers, Cal Performances, Berkeley, California, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, spielzeit’europa I Berliner Festspiele, Barbican, London, Arts Council England and London 2012 Festival.