Old friends enjoy comic relief as they prepare for tragic tale of love and hate

The sound of Clarke Peters’s and Dominic West’s laughter echoes around the cavernous Crucible theatre bar.

The two friends and actors, stars of the acclaimed TV crime drama The Wire, are in Sheffield to appear in Daniel Evans’s production of Othello. In a masterstroke of casting, Peters is playing the title role, with West as his aggrieved lieutenant Iago. But as well as reuniting the two men on stage it also brings them back to a city that has played an emotional role in the narrative of their lives. It was here that Peters started writing Five Guys Named Moe, his celebration of the jazz and blues composer Louis Jordan, which became a West End hit in the 90s, while West grew up in the Steel City.

“It’s changed a lot,” says Peters. “There used to be a parking lot and a road in front of it and those arches across the street weren’t there,” he says, pointing outside. “The Winter Garden,” West informs him. “Is that what it is, with the trees inside?” asks Peters. “Yes, it’s fantastic,” says West. “So many squares have opened up here, there’s one opposite Orchard Square that was an old school building or something which I never knew existed. I grew up here and I think it’s great what’s happened here in the last 10 years. I think what happened in the 70s and 80s was a catastrophe ... and the 50s and 60s,” he says, as both he and Peters dissolve into a fit of laughter.

“Seriously, I think the city centre looks amazing now, it’s just a shame it’s empty and everyone’s gone to Meadowhall.”

The play opens next week, and although he’s done Shakespeare before, Peters admits playing Othello is a daunting prospect. “I try to get back to theatre as often as I can and when this came up I don’t know what possessed me to say ‘yes’. I knew that I needed a challenge but I’m not sure I needed this much of a challenge,” he says, sending West into giggles.

“When you’re doing television the moment the words leave your mouth they’re gone, but here when they leave your mouth they had better go straight back in your ears, and it’s not just one or two lines, it’s a thousand lines.”

West picks up the baton. “It’s always a bit of a joke among actors when someone asks ‘how on earth did you learn all those lines?’ I realise for most people that is what is impressive about theatre actors and now I find myself agreeing with them,” he says. “It sounds dreary but I think learning the lines really is by far the hardest thing. But also Othello is an epic and therefore it contains about five ordinary-sized plays within it. There are fights and songs and it’s so much more physical than most other plays.”

As well as being one of Shakespeare’s longest plays it is seen by some as one of his most forward-thinking, telling the story of Othello, a black man succeeding in a white man’s world. “Compared to any of the Jacobean revenge tragedies it is so naturalistic, there are scenes where it is like a television script. It deals with jealousy and how diseased and corrupt a society gets when the woman is excluded and that hasn’t changed.”

Peters, though, questions the idea that the play is ahead of its time in terms of how it deals with skin colour. “When it was written, the more I look at it I see that a white male would have to play that part. It was probably used as a bit of propaganda, a way for whoever the colonisers were as a bit of subtle instruction. In scrutinising Othello I don’t think it was forward-thinking in the way you say now, but it was forward-thinking then for those who watched it.”

“So you think it’s a cautionary tale, don’t go against nature?” asks West.

“I think that’s part of it, I don’t think it is all of it. I don’t think it’s a cautionary tale as much as a real subtle instructionary tale.”

“I think that’s horse****,” says West. “I know you do,” comes the instant reply.

“Shakespeare understood humanity and racism and the petty prejudices, whether it was a Jew in Venice, or a Moor in Venice. He realised how people’s prejudices could be corrupted into murder and slavery.”

“I’m not disputing that,” says Peters, “but it’s good because we can have this debate and have this argument and agree to disagree.”

“No, I will not let you disagree with me,” his co-star retorts, as they both start laughing again.

There is a genuine chemistry between the two men which probably arises from working in close quarters on a project over a long period of time – in their case the five years they spent filming The Wire. “We used to be friends,” quips West. “I don’t like those who live on the Moors,” retorts Peters, quick as a flash. But the fact they are friends has aided them both.

“It has really helped me,” says Peters. “We are tactile with each other, which you need to have in this play. We work well together, unless he’s upstaging me and then I have to look around and see what the hell he’s doing, but other than that I trust him,” he says.

It’s perhaps just as well that they know each other’s working habits inside out, because they’ve only had five weeks of rehearsal time. This is due, in large part, to the Herculean schedule of West who, until the last week of August, was rehearsing during the day for Othello and performing at night in a revival of Simon Gray’s Butley in London. It has meant they haven’t had as much time rehearsing as they would have liked. “We’ve had too little time on this, we need another couple of weeks really. But the shorthand that exists between us has saved us an awful lot of time. The relationship between Othello and Iago is very intimate in hatred and in love and that would have been such a pain in the backside to develop with a stranger,” explains West.

Iago is arguably Shakespeare’s greatest villain and West decided early on that he wanted to play him with a Sheffield accent.

“I hesitated because you’re putting yourself on the line to do a Sheffield accent in Sheffield. But for me it’s an accent people associate with honesty and the trick is trying to make him appear honest. What’s great about Iago is he’s such a great actor and never stops acting.

“He is constantly changing his face and his role to whoever he talks to. He’s the most evil, nasty bastard in the world and also the most honest, straightforward, loyal servant in the world and you are constantly playing those contrasts. He’s the aggrieved underling, the guy who hasn’t been promoted because of who he is and how he sounds and not because of his ability and I think there’s a lot of people who can relate to that.”

West, who recently starred in the BBC drama The Hour, is nervous about returning to the Crucible. “It’s a very big theatre and you are right in the middle of it and it is terrifying but that’s good because nothing interesting or worthwhile ever happens without a bit of terror – he says, setting himself up for a spectacular fall. I remember the last time I dried on the Crucible stage, I drove to Hull thinking that’s the one place they won’t find me,’” he says, with another bellowing laugh.

But both men were drawn back by the opportunity to perform in a play by the greatest writer who ever lived.

“As difficult as the language is, every day when you connect with a sentence you realise this is what it’s about, it unlocks bits and pieces in your own intellect, and as long as English is spoken in the world people will always come back to Shakespeare,” says Peters, as West nods in silent agreement.

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Othello is at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, from September 15 - October 15. Box office 0114 249 6000.

Brothers in art

Clarke Peters grew up in New Jersey and moved to England in 1973.

His theatre credits include The Iceman Cometh, Chicago and Guys & Dolls.

He first appeared at the Crucible in the award-winning musical Carmen Jones in the 1980s.

His play Five Guys Named Moe won the Olivier Award for Best Entertainment.

He starred in the hit TV show The Wire, playing Detective Lester Freamon.

Dominic West was brought up near Sheffield.

He spent a season working with Sir Peter Hall at The Old Vic.

His TV work includes The Hour (BBC), Appropriate Adult (ITV) and The Wire (HBO) in which he played Detective Jimmy McNulty.