The social, political and moral sensibilities of modern audiences expect Othello to be played by a black man. This, of course, would have been near impossible in Shakespeare's day. The evidence in the play would suggest that Othello is certainly racially different to the caucasian Italians. He is disparagingly called 'thick lips', 'an old black ram', 'a Barbary horse' and 'a lascivious Moor'. Othello himself states that Desdemona's name 'is now begrimed and black as mine own face'.

Many actors at the RSC have 'blacked-up' for the part of Othello. Anthony Quayle (1953), John Gielgud (1961) and Donald Sinden (1979) are amongst white actors who have played Othello with a black face and it is not too difficult to see why - Othello is one of Shakespeare's great, leading, male tragic characters.

Michael Attenborough's casting of Ray Fearon in 1999 caused so much press attention because prior to the production there have been very few black Othellos in productions put on by either of the two subsidised, national theatre companies: the RSC and the National Theatre.

Attenborough set the action in Edwardian times with Fearon as a black general in the middle of a stuffy, racist British colonial military camp. Fearon's performance won him many plaudits: 'Fearon plays Othello with real power. His dignity before the Venetian senators, and his palpable love for Desdemona, are beautifully caught, and so too are the progressive stages by which he is maddened' (Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 23/04/99).