Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Desdemona | 2012 | Toni Morrison | Buy |
Desdemona (2012) is Toni Morrison’s only published play. It reimagines Shakespeare’s Othello by giving voice to Desdemona and the other women in the story, including Barbary, the African nursemaid mentioned only briefly in the original play.
Morrison wrote Desdemona in collaboration with director Peter Sellars and Malian musician Rokia Traore, who contributed songs that run through the performance. The play premiered in Vienna in 2011 before touring internationally. It is a short text but a significant one in Morrison’s catalog, showing her engagement with questions of race and gender through a dramatic form rather than fiction.