Othello: an interview with Victor Oshin

When you decide to go into acting, you’re usually accepting a life in which you’re constantly rejected, living off baked beans and hunting for that elusive job for years and years on end. Luckily for Victor Oshin, he’s walked straight out of graduation at ALRA into the coveted role of Othello with the English Touring Theatre, in co-production with Oxford Playhouse and Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory.

When asked how the experience has been, Oshin’s answer is, unsurprisingly, filled with overwhelming emotion. “Exciting, terrifying, fun, all of the above really,” he says. “It’s kind of just going on a rollercoaster of all of those emotions.” Not only is Oshin appearing as the title role, but in a travelling production. However, when I posed the question of whether that made it more challenging, he seemed fairly relaxed. “Maybe not having my home comforts, not being able to go home whenever I want to, but I’ve liked it, I’ve embraced the nomadic lifestyle. Everyone is very focussed which is quite cool.” If anything, the travelling aspect of the performance has made this production of Othello even more interesting for Oshin, who tries to prevent his character from becoming “stale” by mixing up his stage routine, “shocking my fellow actors”.

“Exciting, terrifying, fun, all of the above really, it’s kind of just going on a rollercoaster of all of those emotions”

Walking straight out of drama school into a job might seem like a dream, but Oshin’s journey was not quite as straightforward as it may seem. He started training at ALRA from 2012-2013 before dropping out. It was this time away that “made me realise what I really wanted, gave me time to reflect, to do things I probably would have never done.” Although some of the experiences might not have “benefitted” him, the time out gave him the opportunity to “find myself a little, explore”. He returned and graduated this year.

Playing the title role of Othello is, no doubt, a milestone for many accomplished actors, but Oshin expresses an admiration for Emilia (played by Kelly Price) as “the moral compass of the whole production”. In another world, she is the character Oshin would want to perform. Of course, Iago is another obvious choice and Oshin has only good things to say about Paul McEwan’s performance: it is “just genius”. It is clear working with his fellow castmates is an experience Oshin greatly enjoys.

Othello is a play that transcends time and deals with some difficult topics

Othello is a play that transcends time and deals with some difficult topics – racism and wider prejudice – and it must be a challenge to not become caught up in the emotional aspects of the play. “I personally see prejudice everyday, but in Othello I take [each scene] as it comes and I try not to take it into reality.” Hearing Oshin talk about these still prevalent themes in Othello is humbling; he is very much grounded in everyday life.

The role is particularly important for Oshin because as young, black male actors “we have to work four times harder than everyone else.” However, it is encouraging to see this has only made him more determined to be “as real as possible and as loving as possible” because “at the end of the day, we’re all human beings” – a valuable lesson we should all take away from this production.

Othello, above all else, is unfortunately not so distant in theme from the present. This is something else that Oshin wants the audience to take away from the production. “It is not so far away from how we’re living now, that kind of world. You can take away anything, anything you want, but Shakespeare isn’t so different from now.”

Othello is at the Warwick Arts Centre from November 6-10. You can buy tickets here.