Desdemona's Handkerchief
National Theatre Bucharest - Painting Hall
November 9, 2026, 7:00 PM
The play "Desdemona's Handkerchief" is marked by the emblematic words of Iago, the famous character from William Shakespeare's play "Othello." Nothing is what it seems, Desdemona is not quite the innocent young woman that the audience familiar with Shakespeare's text knows, Emilia, Iago's wife, is much more involved in the entire intrigue, and Bianca, Casio's mistress, becomes a key character in the whole story.
A story rewritten with humor, intelligence, and that makes you think. Because that's what "Desdemona's Handkerchief" does - it takes the central motif from the play "Othello" and retells the story from the perspective of the female characters.
Desdemona, the wife of the Moor Othello, is a former woman of loose morals, married to see the world and escape the society she lives in. Bianca, the mistress of Cassio, Othello's right-hand man and most prized general, is none other than the madam of the brothel where Desdemona worked, and Emilia, Iago's wife, currently Desdemona's maid, is not just a tool in the hands of the perfidious Iago, but the kinetic impulse that sets things in motion.
And over these three female characters, with intelligence or cunning, with naivety or cynicism, with devotion and honesty, with love and hate, floats the specter of imminent danger. From a dark corner, the inflexible god of jealousy - the green eyed monster, as Shakespeare called it, demands its tribute and will receive its payment.
Starting from Paula Vogel's text, director Anca Sigartău reimagines the story of Othello and creates a marvel of a show. Arabela Neazi stands by her in the role of Bianca and Elena Mogîldea Cernea in the role of Desdemona. Thus, a savory text, a show to match, in 3 characters, which will surely delight both connoisseurs of Shakespearean text and those who are just discovering the story.
