YORK Shakespeare Project will perform at York Theatre Royal for the first time this autumn.

Othello, the project’s 19th production, will be presented in the Studio from October 23 to 27 under the directorship of Mark France, who is “really proud” to have assembled one of his strongest casts and creative teams.

“Many thanks to all who auditioned and commiserations to the many who didn’t get parts,” he says. “The standard was incredibly high and it’s great to see so much acting talent thriving in Yorkshire.”

In the title role will be Dermot Daly, a professional actor from Leeds. “Dermot is delighted to have the chance to join the project to play this incredible part,” says Mark.

“I’ve known him for a few years since I stage managed a touring production of Dial, a new play written by fellow Othello cast member Gemma Head, that Dermot was in, and we’ve long wanted to work together.

“He was very mild-mannered in that play, which played the Theatre Royal Studio in November 2009 – but it was when I saw him in a production of Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange at Harrogate Theatre last year that I realised he could be a potential Othello.

“Then it was just a matter of us talking about it and working out whether he could fit it round his other work commitments. Luckily for us, he could.”

Dermot will be joined by Jamie Smelt as Iago, who Mark most recently directed as Petruchio in Mooted Theatre Co’s The Taming Of The Shrew; University of York theatre students Pete Watts and Katie Macintyre as Cassio and Desdemona; and Leeds actress Victoria Delaney as Emilia.

No sooner has Maurice Crichton finished playing Pilate in the York Mystery Plays 2012 than he must turn his focus to Brabantio. Likewise, Beryl Nairn follows up her Mystery Plays role as Annas by playing the Duke (yes, you read that correctly).

Jonathan Bedford will be Roderigo; Matthew Wignall, Montano; Neil Tattersall, Lodovico; Gemma Head, Bianca; and Clive Lyons, Gratiano.

Mark, who is the artistic director of York company Mooted Theatre Co, is joined in the production team by his regular designer, Simon Jarvis ; composer and sound designer Kingsley Ash; lighting designer Kelli Zezulka; and costume designer Jenny Draper.

Othello will complete a hat-trick of York Shakespeare Project productions for Mark, who has already directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry VI.

His starting point for his modern interpretation of Othello is the hardness of Shakespeare’s play. “It’s a really masculine world with a visceral brutality that I wanted to find a way to bring out on stage, which led to the decision to give the production a really contemporary flavour,” he says.

“Working with designer Simon Jarvis and costume designer Jenny Draper, we’ve come up with a look for the show that is very modern while still remaining highly theatrical.

“It was important to us that the play had a reality of its own and wasn’t banal or everyday. Coupled with Kingsley Ash’s music and soundscape, I think it’s going to be a really immersive and thrilling experience.”

Looking at the themes of Othello, Mark says: “It is famously a play about prejudice, which we won’t shy away from, but it also seems to be to be about a society that has lost its moral compass, and the cruelty and dishonesty that can exist in such a world.

“The Venice of Shakespeare’s play is a corrupt, mercantile world fighting foreign wars for money and consumed with greed. Such a world uses people like Othello and permits characters like Iago to thrive. It’s a casually misogynist as well as a racist place, and what really struck me was the sense of people as commodities, who could be cast aside once they have fulfilled their useful purpose.”

Othello is also a brilliant thriller, suggests Mark. “Consequently, we’ve decided to keep the staging as simple as possible to allow a real fluidity of movement between scenes. It may be a dark and brutal play, but I want to give the audience a real roller-coaster ride of an experience, and keep things as taut and as tight as possible.”

• York Shakespeare Project’s Othello will run in the Studio, York Theatre Royal, from October 23 to 27, 7.45pm plus Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk