Daniel Craig will be spending his time off from playing the most famous fictional spy in the world by playing one of theater’s greatest villains. The James Bond actor will star in an Off-Broadway production of William Shakespeare’s Othello opposite Selma’s David Oyelowo.
Oyelowo will star as Othello, while Craig will star as Iago. It is a production by the New York Theatre Workshop, which did not announce the dates for the fall 2016 show. The small nonprofit company’s productions are staged in its 199-seat theater, so it will be very hard to get tickets for this Othello.
According to The New York Times, the production will be directed by Tony winner Sam Gold (Fun Home). This will be Gold’s first time professionally directing a Shakespeare play.
“I’ve been wanting to do Shakespeare for a long time — it’s what started me as a director — and I’ve almost done Shakespeare a number of times in the past few years, but it hasn’t worked out,” Gold told the New York Times. “Finally, the right thing came together.”
Craig will be seen on the big screen in Spectre, his fourth James Bond movie, on Nov. 6. On the Broadway stage, Craig has starred in 2013’s Betrayal and 2009’s A Steady Rain.
Oyelowo played Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma and was just nominated for an Emmy for HBO’s Nightingale. As Variety notes, his London stage credits include Henry VI and The Suppliants.