Adrian Lester will star as the title Moor in the National Theatre’s 50th anniversary production of Shakespeare's Othello, according to The Daily Mail. Joining Lester will be newcomer Olivia Vinall as his ill-fated wife Desdemona and Olivier Award winner Rory Kinnear as the treacherous Iago. Nicholas Hytner will helm the new production, running at the Olivier auditorium beginning in April 2013. No exact dates have been announced at this time.
Shakespeare’s Othello tackles the universal and timeless themes of jealousy, betrayal, racism and the lure of power.
Lester won an Olivier Award for the musical Company. He also starred onstage in Hamlet, As You Like It, Sweeney Todd, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Henry V and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. A relative unknown, Vinall received acclaim for her performance in The Dark at the Top of The Stairs at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. Kinnear won an Olivier Award for the National’s The Man of Mode and received an additional nomination for Hamlet. His other stage credits include Mary Stuart, The Revenger’s Tragedy and Measure for Measure. Kinnear has appeared as Bill Tanner in the James Bond films Quantum of Solace and Skyfall.