LONDON (AP) ¿ Four centuries on, Shakespeare still sells. But the playwright is not the main reason the latest London production of "Othello" sold out its entire three-month run on the day the box office opened, or why tickets are being offered on Internet auction sites for hundreds of dollars a pair.

The big draw is the cast, led by Chiwetel Ejiofor (pictured, the films "American Gangster" and "Dirty Pretty Things") as Othello, the warrior undone by jealousy, and "Star Wars"' Obi Wan Kenobi, Ewan McGregor, as his villainous aide Iago.

"Othello" joins a string of recent big-name Shakespearean productions in London's West End ¿ Patrick Stewart's acclaimed "Macbeth" has just ended and Ian McKellen's "King Lear" is currently packing them in. The difference in this Donmar Warehouse production is the intimate scale of the venue. It seats only 250, and the performers are only a few feet from the audience.

Director Michael Grandage sensibly offers a clean, spare production of Shakespeare's tragedy in which the actors, and the language, are the main event.

Christopher Oram's set begins as little more than a bare stage, dripping water and a high brick wall, a damp battlement in a misty Venice, where triumphant black general Othello ¿ an outsider, but a respected one ¿ has just married young Desdemona. Amid the mist and murk, there is initially almost nothing to distract the audience's attention from the actors. It's something of a relief when, after an hour, both light and furniture appear.

Unfortunately for the newlyweds, trusted lieutenant Iago is plotting Othello's downfall. Shakespeare's tragedy is a study of the corrosive effects of jealousy that unfolds with a horrible inevitability. From a series of "trifles light as air" ¿ most famously a misplaced handkerchief ¿ Iago spins a web of insinuation and deceit to make the general doubt his wife's fidelity.

Ejiofor's Othello is a man of easy, natural authority, but tragically trusting. As Iago says contemptuously, he "thinks men honest that but seem to be so." Once the virus of jealousy gets into his system, though, he's struck by a fever that eventually drives him to murder.

Like Hamlet and Macbeth, Othello is a Shakespearean protagonist driven mad by suspicion and fear, and Ejiofor moves subtly between his moods, from unease to fury to grief.

McGregor stalks the stage as scheming Iago, conveying charisma, a sharp intelligence and a sense of the character's pleasure in his own cunning, if not the source of his hatred for Othello. Racism? Humiliation? Ambition? Soured affection? Shakespeare doesn't spell it out, and McGregor ¿ though compelling in his coiled malevolence ¿ doesn't fill in the explanation.

Kelly Reilly is a sparky Desdemona, first bewildered then quietly despairing as her husband's behaviour changes. And Michelle Fairley goes from worldly wit to avenging fury as Emilia, Iago's wife and, ultimately, the architect of his downfall.

The whole cast is strong, from Tom Hiddleston as open-hearted Cassio, a pawn in Iago's schemes, to Royal Shakespeare Company veteran James Laurenson as Desdemona's disapproving father, Brabantio.

As an opportunity to see sterling Shakespearean acting up close, "Othello" could hardly be bettered. But be prepared to stand in line ¿ the only tickets available are ten released each morning for that day's show.

"Othello" is at the Donmar Warehouse in London until February 23.