OTHELLO AND IAGO: OR ONCE UPON A NEWT
Well, Othello done as a school play is as original an idea as "for once, leading characters don't get to act in the play" in The Ember Island Players (though the Dornish arc makes, just for fanservice, shipping, and a little excitement, no use of the latter). Think of that: Othello done as a school play. In Fictionland, as the School Play article on TV Tropes proclaims, the most common dramas to be staged, both written by the Bard of Avon, are Romeo & Juliet for teenagers and MSND for primary school children. Othello is considered too controversial (steamy, and allegedly racist) to be performed by teens in the average fiction series. I loved the daring premise of having this for a school play. So I loved the fact that I (in Game of Wands) did one of my favourite Shakespeares for a change. --this was written in 2015
After noticing the astounding lack of instances of Othello as a School Play in canon, Idlewild (a pretty recent example from this very decade, 2020s) being the only instance so far listed on TV Tropes, I recalled my Othello School Play in Game of Wands, my ASoIaF Hogwarts AU, and the result is a new gaiden for El semen de los ahorcados (Les Mis Hogwarts AU), in which an amateur production of Othello for Shakespeare Day the 23 of April (taking place in the leads' third year, so they're 13), performed at Hogwarts by the core members of AS-SORTED, goes completely haywire and turns into something very similar to other School Play episodes, most often anime (Cinderella in Fruits Basket, Journey to the West in Love Hina, Mac**th in Space in Jimmy Neutron)... no longer a serious adaptation, but one stuck with JoJo's references, Star Wars references, even a part where Iago (Montparnasse) and Othello (Bossuet/Lesgles) fight each other with quidditch bats, that is obviously a reference to Jamón, Jamón.
Things started to fall apart when Cosette, who played Desdemona, caught the mumps and had to be quarantined in the Hospital Wing... at which point Montparnasse (who was already stealing rhe rehearsals as a flamboyant Iago Sissy Villain - think Zoisite, Fisheye, and Cytomander rolled into one!), suggested that Éponine (the producer/director) cast Enjolras as Desdemona, as a joke, but 'Ponine took it seriously (Enj with his fair skin, sapphire eyes, and golden hair that he kept long --until fifth year--, would make a perfect Desdemona, also this universe's Éponine being a yaoi fangirl and casting 'Parnasse as Iago for obvious reasons saw all the possibilities between Enj as Desdemona and the male cast!).
As a result of this, Grantaire wanted the part of Cassio to be able to kiss the new Desdemona, so he gave Courfeyrac some newt potion and had him say "if things are this way, I am a newt!" to turn poor Courf into a newt (whom Combeferre found and kept in a fishtank). This turns out to be the backstory for R himself becoming a newt this way in Book 1 (the one where Javert takes the helm and the house system becomes more or less a caste hierarchy). It also explains how Combeferre found out that the cure for the newt potion is a true love's kiss.
From these changes on, the play went completely off the rails, with everyone's butterbeer spiked with firewhisky in the drinking scene, Musichetta as Emilia wearing a very Leia-like fanservicey bikini, JoJo's references galore, the quidditch bat duel previously mentioned, and Combeferre as Ludovico finding a very familiar newt on the stage, kissing him, and a half-naked Courfeyrac in human form (no longer a newt) introducing himself as Mercutio, who survived and left Verona --the finale has him asking for Ludovico's hand and starting a threesome with Cassio and Ludovico (also, Desdemona is not quite dead, thanks to her stand Molitva --a stand that takes the form of Marija Serifovic in a suit!). In the final battle everyone turns out to have stands (aside from the male cast's lightsabers and the female cast's blasters), and these stands are different from patroni (according to StrixAlluka, you can have both a stand and a patronus; a stand is a personification of your willpower and personality, while a patronus is more like a spirit animal). The stands only crop up at the end of this gaiden, but this being a universe where everything except resurrecting the dead is possible, it is possible that these characters still had stands in the main saga, only that, being more experienced Hogwarts students (4th-7th year), they rely more on magic.
THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO AND IAGO
Produced and adapted by Éponine Thénardier
STARRING
- Wilbur "Bossuet" Lesgles as Othello
- Anne-Euphrasie "Cosette" Fauchelevent as Desdemona
- Paragon Ganymede Enjolras as Desdemona (final production, due to Cosette getting the mumps)
- Caractacus Montparnasse as Iago (as a mincing Camp Gay with a fey scarf and colourful extensions)
- Sejanus Cassio Hercule de Courfeyrac as Cassio (until Grantaire had him turned into a newt)
- the same Courfeyrac as Mercutio (when he was kissed on stage and became a human again)
- René "Grand'R" Grantaire as Cassio (final production)
- Musichetta as Emilia
- Marius Pontmercy as Roderigo
- Jules-François Combeferre as Ludovico
