the Goodreads Team asked Malorie Blackman:

Can you a come up with a deleted scene from your favorite Shakespeare play?

Malorie Blackman In my final scene, Cassio, who is now in charge, tries one last time to get Iago to say why he caused the deaths of so many innocent people.

Cassio:
Thy hands and thy feet, they shalt be shackled,
Knave, thou art to be pulled upon the rack
Till thy skin tears and thy bones crack.
The power to forestall such grim torments
Lies within thine own grasp, if thou wouldst but admit
The why of thy sins and freely repent…

Iago howls… with laughter.

My book Chasing the Stars was inspired by Shakespeare’s Othello, so I have chosen to add a scene to the end of that play. I had to study Othello as one of my A Level set texts many moons ago, and it has since become one of my favourite Shakespeare plays.

My scene above takes place at the very end of the play, when Othello, Desdemona, Roderigo and Emilia are all dead – thanks to Iago. Once he realises how he’d been duped, Othello is desperate to know why Iago did it? Iago answers:

‘Demand me nothing. What you know, you know.
From this time forth I never will speak word.’

Iago is warned that ‘Torments will ope thy lips.’ He’s going to be tortured for what he’s done. My scene above shows Cassio, who has taken over after Othello’s death, still trying to get Iago to at least apologise for what he did. Iago, though in pain, laughs in Cassio’s face. I don’t believe Iago is a man to feel remorse for what he has done or to explain himself. The scene I wrote above expresses that.

Can a person be truly one hundred per cent evil? I believe Iago comes close.

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