Why do we have to read plays like Othello? Because they’re relevant

TRACY CHEVALIER’S RETELLING OF OTHELLO MAKES US QUESTION HOW FAR WE’VE REALLY COME

New Boy By Tracy Chevalier Knopf Canada 188 pp; $29.95

The playground can be a symbol of the world: people divided into sections by where they live, what they look like and what they value. Chevalier employs this literally in New Boy, her rendition of Othello as told through a fourth- grade classroom in the suburbs of 1970s Washington, D.C. We see the figures we recognize from Shakespeare played out as school children, making us reconsider characters we thought we knew – and getting inside the minds of Othello, Desdemona, Emilia and Iago in their new forms makes us rethink the classic, as well as the judgments we made when acting out the play in our own high school classrooms.

But don’t let the cast of schoolchildren fool you into thinking that this novel was written for children. One would hope that New Boy, as well as the others in the Hogarth Shakespeare series ( a group of novels retelling Shakespeare by contemporary authors) will one day be plopped down onto the desks of students as they whine and gripe over having to read their annual Shakespeare play in English class. This is the perfect answer to the constant student question – why do we have to read this old thing? – and it is proof of the usual teacher response – because it is still relevant.

In New Boy, Othello is Osei, the new arrival in a suburban school of white children who have known each other their whole lives. Some of these scenes come from Chevalier’s own experience: she, a white girl, went to a school in 1970s Washington that had a population of mostly black children. Osei, not only the new kid but also the only black student in the school, becomes fast friends with Dee, a popular girl he feels lucky to “go with” so quickly. These relationships between students are what rule the playground at their age. They may start in the morning and be broken by lunch.

The short time span of the novel, which takes place over one day, echoes the timelines in many of Shakespeare’s works – which play out in only a few days while seeming as though they could stretch for weeks. Shakespeare’s tragedies often focus around people who fall in love almost instantly, changing – and often ending – their lives forever. Chevalier follows suit, and we can’t help but wonder how the famous deaths at the close of Othello will be interpreted – but by the end find out that they are told in a unique, yet still heartbreaking way by Chevalier.

Osei is instantly likeable for his intelligence and for his many travels as a young child, reminding us of the original Othello and the “the dangers had passed.” Dee, like the character on which she is based, “did pity” the tales Osei shares with her. In this version though, pity is not something that Osei wants.

Though he has lived all over the United States, everyone at the school only focuses on Osei’s original birthplace, Ghana. He goes back each summer and loves it there because of the sense of belonging he feels. The kids and teachers at school don’t ask what it is really like in Ghana, assuming only the bad. Everyone thinks Osei has lived a sad life and no one bothers to inquire about the truth, which in this case is that he lives in a wealthy part of town with his mother and successful diplomat father.

Chevalier’s Iago is a fourth-grade bully named Ian, whose bitterness comes from his own insecurities about being liked at school. Although Ian initially wants to befriend Osei, as others want to be friends with him as well, Ian starts to plot Osei’s downfall.

Racism runs through the entire community, from Dee’s mother – who Dee couldn’t imagine bringing Osei home to – to their teacher, Mr. Brabant – whose fury can be seen starting to boil when he first sees Osei, until he finally lets it out, saying unspeakable things at the end of the novel. Meanwhile, Osei’s older sister Sisi fights back, having made friends with young people in the Black Power movement after years of this type of treatment. New Boy not only allows a better understanding of Othello the play, but also the continuing issues of racism in our society.

Othello forces readers to consider how terrible it must have been for him to live among such racism in 16th-century Venice. Chevalier’s retelling brings it home and makes us question if our society today is really any better.

THE ANSWER TO “WHY DO WE HAVE TO READ THIS OLD THING?” – IT’S STILL RELEVANT