Toni Morrison adds twist to 'Desdemona' PartII..continued...

Toni Morrison adds twist to 'Desdemona': Morrison, the Nobel Prize-winning author of "Beloved" and "Song of Solomon," can mount a compelling argument. Sellars, well known for his radical reinterpretations of classic plays and operas, took up the challenge and mounted a production of Shakespeare's tragedy in New York in 2009. The set was full of TV monitors, and much of the action took place in bed. The reviews were harsh. But Morrison was intrigued enough to continue the conversation. And Sellars, once again, was game. The result is an entirely new theatrical work, "Desdemona, " with a script by Morrison, direction by Sellars and music by the Malian composer and singer Rokia Traoré. Cal Performances mounts the U.S. premiere next week at Zellerbach Playhouse. Morrison's text opens with these blunt lines: "My name is Desdemona. The word, Desdemona, means misery. It means ill-fated. It means doomed." The heroine, like the other characters in the piece, is dead.