Shakespeare’s Moore of Venice took on a modern format in Sammie Byron’s “Othello’s Tribunal.” This one-man play premiered in 2012. The show was written and performed by Byron reflecting on his experience with trauma, incarceration and Shakespeare.
Byron’s show functions as one long monologue with a talk-back afterwards. Throughout the monologue, he narrates childhood trauma’s with bullies and abusive parents eventually leading to his prison sentences. When explaining his first arrest for shooting a bully, Byron claimed, “in an effort to protect ourselves from violence, we become violent.” He emphasised that this is not an excuse, just an explanation.
His second arrest was for robbery, and the third was for killing a woman who was abusive to him. Serving 31 consecutive years in prison, Byron focused on bettering himself through books, electrician’s training, and focusing on his physical health. However, Byron was never taught how to cope with trauma or heal from a lifetime of hurt. While in prison, Byron learned how to process trauma when he became a founder of Shakespeare Behind Bars.
In his ten years with the company, Byron played twenty of Shakespeare’s characters, but he said the most impactful to him was playing Othello in 1999. Like Byron, Othello was impacted by racial relations and discrimination. Additionally, in the play “Othello,” the title character kills his love interest out of paranoia. Byron said that in playing Othello, he learned how to process the violence of the murder he committed.
The show is bare in terms of production elements. He donned grey jeans and tennis shoes with a loose, black, middle-eastern tunic. These costume elements blend Othello’s and Byron’s ethnicities, incorporating both.
Scenically, the stage was bare with just a single chair provided by UNA. For lighting, there was a standard, warm wash. This simplicity emphasized Byron’s notion of associating the stage with truth. This is why the props were important: black glasses and a grey fedora— when playing a character other than himself— and a white handkerchief throughout. This handkerchief is used to symbolize both Othello’s guilt in Shakespeare’s play, and Byron’s guilt in his own. Unlike Othello’s tragic death, Byron chooses to live.
Through “Othello’s Tribunal,” Byron gives back to his community by touring the show in colleges, universities, conferences, prisons, and juvenile detention centers. He hopes that his story will inspire others. Byron states clearly in his performance “We choose the roles we want to play.” While this applies to Shakespeare Behind Bars casting decisions, the playwright clarified that this is true on and off of stage.
