A scene from Othello
Toronto's World Stage cancelled its season opener, Othello, C'est Qui? Tuesday, after its lead actor was left stuck in Ivory Coast without a visa.
Artistic director Tina Rasmussen said actor Franck Edmond Yao was not denied entry to Canada – his travel documents were simply stuck making their way through the bureaucracy.
"His documentation may arrive tomorrow, but we can't wait and see," said Rasmussen, who noted that Yao's German co-star Cornelia Dörr is already in Toronto. "My team and I are doing all that we can to ensure that this performance is eventually restaged in Toronto."
Othello, C'est Qui? (Othello, Who's That?) is an award-winning co-production between Germany and Ivory Coast – and concerns Shakespeare's most notable black character, who is well known in the Western world, but little known in Africa.
J. Kelly Nestruck