Othello: A White Man's Role?

Look through Othello's performance history, the character Othello wasn't played by a black man until 1826, when Ira Aldrige stepped up to the plate. The French critic Théophile Gautier praised his acting, saying:

"[Aldridge] had that nonchalance, that Oriental attitude, that desinvolture of a Negro that no European is able to imitate [...] He produced an immense effect and received interminable applause."

But The Times thought it was mediocre:

"[...] such an exhibition is well enough at Sadler’s Wells, or at Bartholomew Fair, but it certainly is not very creditable to a great national establishment."

When Paul Robeson came to play the role in the early 1930s, he talked at length about Othello being a black man's role:

"Shakespeare meant Othello to be a Black Moor from Africa, an African of the highest nobility of heritage. From Kean on, Othello was made a light-skinned Moor because the West had since made Africa a slave center and the African was pictured only as a slave."

Of course, Robeson and Aldrige were not the only black Othellos; there was Salvini and, more recently, Laurence Fishburne (in Parker's film Othello), among countless others.

But given all of this, what do you think of the following?

"I am not sure Othello’s part should be portrayed by a black actor at all, and it should not be seen as the pinnacle of a black actor’s career, as it so often is [...] Shakespeare’s tragedy is not about Africanness, but the white man’s idea of Africanness."

Virginia Vaughan, in Performing Blackness on English Stages, 1500-1800

That's bunk. Anybody can play Othello. I'd like to see a black cast and a white Othello. The script would have to be edited some, but this is common with Shakespeare anyhow. It would be an interesting interpretation. Perhaps I'll get to do it some day.

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Originally Posted by xman

That's bunk. Anybody can play Othello. I'd like to see a black cast and a white Othello. The script would have to be edited some, but this is common with Shakespeare anyhow. It would be an interesting interpretation. Perhaps I'll get to do it some day.

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It's funny you should mention that...in 1997, there was a production in Washington D.C. which did just that. Patrick Stewart starred as Othello:

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-imag...othello460.jpg

"When an all white or mostly white audience watches a black Othello, the reaction can be liberal but patronizing. This production is a deliberate attempt to reverse that situation, to make a white audience experience some of the feelings of isolation and discomfort that black people experience all of the time in their lives." - Director Jude Kelly

I believe the BBC Shakespeare productions had Anthony Hopkins playing Othello. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082861/. Anyone can play any part. But the character is black and whomever plays it will have to pretend - with make up. Old movie version had Laurence Olivier playing Othello: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059555/

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Originally Posted by Dori

"When an all white or mostly white audience watches a black Othello, the reaction can be liberal but patronizing. This production is a deliberate attempt to reverse that situation, to make a white audience experience some of the feelings of isolation and discomfort that black people experience all of the time in their lives." - Director Jude Kelly

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Sounds like jibberish to me. I never patronized a black Othello. That's just intellectualized garbage.

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Originally Posted by Virgil

I believe the BBC Shakespeare productions had Anthony Hopkins playing Othello. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082861/. Anyone can play any part. But the character is black and whomever plays it will have to pretend - with make up. Old movie version had Laurence Olivier playing Othello: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059555/

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Yeah, Hopkins played what one might call a "tawny Moor." I'm also familiar with the Laurence Olivier film.

Vaughan also said, "To many [Olivier’s] impersonation was inherently racist."

A few classmates and I raised this question (is Othello a white role?) in our presentation, and nobody really had much to say. So I decided to bring the question here. :)

Oh, tough questions like that don't always go over well in classrooms. Even if they are important to ask, and being asked with the intention of gaining knowledge. People are very PC these days, which is good, I guess. But you have to be able to talk about those issues.

I think it is important that Othello comes from a different culture. Thats necessary for the play to work. He falls foul of Iago because he lacks experience of Venetian morality. But I can't see how his blackness has a direct affect on the plot.

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Originally Posted by Virgil

I believe the BBC Shakespeare productions had Anthony Hopkins playing Othello. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082861/. Anyone can play any part. But the character is black and whomever plays it will have to pretend - with make up. Old movie version had Laurence Olivier playing Othello: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059555/

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I suppose it depends on contemporary cultural attitudes as well. I though Hopkins' Othello was a bit ridiculous (welsh accent and all), but while Olivier's performance was extremely good, the appearance of a white man blacked up and imitating a negro stereotype seems so racist it makes you wince.

At the end of the day, the play demonstrates Shakespeare's own Elizabethan prejudices. All his characters in the play, to one degree or another, infer the bestiality of the black man, and it is ultimately shown to be true. There is no positive racial message to the play, so I can understand why a lot of black actors are very cautious about taking the part.

I always viewed the downfall of Othello as more of a self-fulfilling prophesy than an example of Elizabethan views on race.

Allow me to explain my previous statement. Iago, as well as Brabantio, Roderigo, and others, demonstrate hatred toward Othello because he is a Moor. However, it is not until Iago turns his hatred to action that we see anything bestial about Othello. That is why I would like to see Othello played by a white actor, without makeup, at least not until Iago persuades him that Desdemona is unfaithful, and even then, I would like to see a physical change to that of the "green-eyed monster" than that of a stereotypical angry black man.

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Originally Posted by prendrelemick

I think it is important that Othello comes from a different culture. Thats necessary for the play to work. He falls foul of Iago because he lacks experience of Venetian morality. But I can't see how his blackness has a direct affect on the plot.

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I agree with this, although the "blackness" is important as it plays into the theme of black exterior (Othello) versus black interior (Iago).

I would like to see Othello played as true to his race as possible. He was a Moor--an Arab. I think there is nothing wrong with a director trying to keep true to the story.