OTHELLO is unique among Shakespeare’s
later plays as essentially a domestic tragedy
 First recorded performance was November 1604
 Commentators criticize plot for Shakespeare’s use of
time (When do Desdemona and Cassio have time to
cuckold Othello?)
 Unique among his tragedies as Iago dominates the play
in terms of lines...only Hamlet and Henry V have more
lines in the canon
Sources
Cinthio’s HECATOMMITHI
Influence from Morality Plays
I look down towards his feet; but that’s a fable
If thou be’st a devil, I cannot kill thee.
(5.2.294-5)
 In these lines Othello searches
Iago’s feet to see if they are
cloven like the devil
 Medieval moralities often
personify Good and Evil as
the conscience, an attribute of
Iago’s character
Edwin Booth as Iago
It features stock Roman characters
 Othello, the braggart warrior
 Desdemona, inamorata
 Iago, the trickster
 Brabantio, the suspicious father
 Cassio, inamorato
 Emilia, sassy servant
Tommaso Salvini as Othello
LANGUAGE & MUSIC
Strong initial contrast between Othello (verse)
and Iago (prose)
 Othello’s language erodes as play progresses (1.3.166167) contrasts with (4.1.35-43)
 Imagery includes contrast of light with darkness and
the human and the bestial
 Iago is a chameleon, suiting the language to the action
 Shakespeare employs song and music to evoke
atmosphere
THEMES AND IDEAS
This is a play about reason, passion and
the green-eyed monster
 The Machiavellan mind is explored
 “The other” To the Elizabethan, “a
Turk” was the cruellest of insults
The Moorish ambassador
to the English court 1601,
sought an alliance against
Spain.
 Women are most victimized in the
play, yet Emilia’s speech (4.3.87106) rivals Shylocks “What is a
Jew?”
STAGING CHALLENGES
 Modern audiences are
conditioned to expect a
Black Othello
 As late as 1980s White
English actors still played
Othello
Paul Robeson as Othello
James Earl Jones as Othello
Christopher Plummer as Iago
Olivier as OTHELLO
Frank Finlay as IAGO
In 1997, Patrick Stewart played Othello as
a white man with a black man as Iago
THE DEATH SCENE
If played sloppily, it
comes off comic and
not tragic...most
especially since
Desdemona is killed,
then almost 40 lines
later, recovers long
enough to absolve
Othello
OTHELLO ON STAGE
 Richard Burbage was the first Othello to John Lowin’s Iago
 The play seems particularly suited to the Globe and
Blackfriars
 It may have been the first restoration production with a
female actor playing the role of Desdemona
 Among the first of Shakespeare’s plays to be performed in
the American colonies. In 1752, the governor of Virginia
had it played for the chief of the Iroquois nation
David Garrick failed as Othello but
triumphed as Iago
The most admired Othello of mid19th century was Italian Tommaso
Salvini. His major rival was
American Edwin Booth who was
more successful as Iago. In fact, he
was described as the supreme Iago
of his age.
Stanislavski
as Othello
Paul Robeson (1930) changed
perceptions of Othello “forever”
Production revived in NY (1943)
with Uta Hagen & Jose Ferrer
William Marshall, background
in opera and James Earl Jones
also excelled in the role. Jones
played opposite Christopher
Plummer at Stratford, Ontario in
1981, a production that
transferred to NYC
Controversial performances include Ben Kingsley and David Suchet
directed by Terry Hands at the RSC in 1985
Othello on Film and TV
1906 - Portions of the play appeared on film
1922 – German production of a silent film starring Werner Krauss as
Iago and Emil Jannings as Othello. It is the first silent Shakespeare
movie to be sold to the general public.
1952-Director Orson Welles filmed in Venice, Tuscany, Morocco
1955-Boris Pasternak adaptation into Russian
1965-Stuart Burge filmed the National Theatre production
starringLaurence Olivier and Maggie Smith, directed by John Dexter
Emil Jannings as OTHELLO (1922)
International films
1980-Liz White filmed a feminist Canadien
production with Yaphet Kotto, Richard Dixon
(Iago) and Audrey Dixon (Desdemona)
1981-Elijah Mohinsky’s BBC Television
Production originally planned for James Earl
Jones...He was replaced by Anthony Hopkins
opposite Bob Hoskins as Iago
1988-Janet Suzman directed a South African
production with John Kani for Johannesburg’s
Market Theatre
Recent productions
1990-RSC production directed by Trevor Nunn with Willard
White as Othello, Ian McKellan as Iago and Imogen Stubbs as
Desdemona
1995-Oliver Parker directed Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth
Branagh, the text is edited to accommodate Fishburne
Adaptations
Verdi’s opera Otello (1887)
was famously filmed by
Franco Zeffirelli starring
Placido Domingo in 1968
Catch My Soul, a rock opera played
London in 1970
Was covered several times in the US and elsewhere
including a film starring Richie Havens.
“O” (2000) was written and
directed by Tim Blake Smith
British TV “Othello” updates action to
Scotland Yard today with Eamonn Walker in
the title role.