All good things come to those who wait.
This proverb was told to me time after time, due to impatience (still nowadays!) being my besetting sin, and also:
Better late than never.
Well, Tracy Chevalier's modern take on
Othello is scheduled for release in summer 2017. Within more than a year.
Still, nothing more is confirmed except the fact that she will focus on the theme of being an outsider. And a little about the premise (über-exciting!!!).
But we'll keep you informed, in the most Varys-like style, of how the project unfurls...
For one does not simply walk into the Mordor of novelism. Writing a novel takes a lot of time, over a year, so you will be informed little by little... Currently, Tracy may still be brainstorming and thinking of ideas for the story, already knowing the plot and the characters of
Othello. So far, the blurb is that the story will take place in a PLAYGROUND IN THE 70S, and all the characters will be PRE-TEEN CHILDREN:
My Othello is set on a 1970s elementary (primary) school playground; all the characters are 11 years old, and the action takes place over one day.
Think of it as
Othello meets
Recess. Ah,
Recess. One of the series of my 90s childhood, a look into playground society, a faithful view of pre-teen society for an institute-bred aspie like me (fine training for the social world I would enter in high school)... and at the same time a satirical look at the adult society that the playground mirrors...
So... how will Othello's ethnic descent be played? Will he be Sub-Saharan, Middle Eastern, Asian, Abie/Maori... or a Caucasian among non-Caucasians (I've got a boarding-school animesque retelling with a blond and blue-eyed Frenchman, Elliot, among Asians!)? The outsider who has risen to the top of the pops (my guess) and is dating one of the local Ashleys (man, I luved the Ashleys and the Tylers!)... Another, even more awesome decision would be making Othello another minority: a disabled person (an aspie would be awesome), seropositive (due to a blood transfusion: this was before the HIV scare)... or even female (a female Iago, or "Iako," like I read of in a novel, would be awesome, and an "Othella" would be even more... heck, even the "Othella and Desmond" approach of getting the whole cast through Rule 63, like Tarantino did in
Switchblade Sisters [
Othello completely gender-flipped with high-school "bad girls," courtesy of Quentin Fricking Tarantino: as awesome as it sounds]). Or even a
twofer minority.
So, will he choose the nerdy new kid (an aspie Cassio would make the story even more impressive) over his savvier hitherto right hand... who will make the upstart misbehave under a caffeine or sugar rush? And will the McGuffin still be a hanky, or something else?
Will there be any character deaths (this is the story of some schoolkids, after all, an impressive premise for a coming of age theme), like in the original?
Will any characters be cross-cast (a female Iago, or "Iako," like I read of in a novel, would be awesome, and an "Othella" would be even more... heck, even the "Othella and Desmond" approach of getting the whole cast through Rule 63, like Tarantino did in
Switchblade Sisters [
Othello completely gender-flipped, starring high-school "bad girls," courtesy of Quentin Fricking Tarantino: as awesome as it sounds]).
How will the queer and feminist themes be played out (after all, this is the 70s)? Which motives would Chevalier's Iago have?
Still, we've got more than a year full of excitement ahead. More than a year of Olympics, Shakespeare, Waterfire, Pretty Cure, gaslamp fantasy, and many other surprises to keep us excited until next summer comes...
