Othello has been one of Shakespeare's most frequently performed plays, proving particularly popular in the C17th and C18th. Except in the time of the Commonwealth (1642-1660), when the Puritans closed the theatres and outlawed performances, there has barely been a decade when Othello was not staged in the past 400 years.


The first recorded performance of Othello was for King James VI/I at Whitehall in 1604, with Richard Burbage in the title role. Little is known about the production, but it is thought to have been one of Burbage's finest performances. An elegy to Burbage, called the Moor 'his chiefest part, wherein beyond the rest he moved the heart'. Othello was regularly performed throughout the seventeenth century. There are references to a royal performance in honour of King James VI/I's daughter Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine in 1613 and to a number of performances at the Globe, the Blackfriars Theatre and at Hampton Court between the years 1610 and 1636.


In 1660 the Commonwealth collapsed, Puritan rule ended and Charles II was restored to the throne. He re-opened theatres and issued a Royal Warrant ordering that only women should play women's parts on stage. That same year, Margaret Hughes played Desdemona to Nathaniel Burt's Othello in what Charles Shattuck suggested was the first instance of a woman performing on the English stage. The following prologue was introduced for the occasion:

'I saw the lady dressed.

The woman plays today: mistake me not;

No man in gown, or page in petticoat;

A woman to my knowledge, yet I can't

(If I should die) make affidavit on't.'

(Thomas Jordan, Royal Arbor of Loyal Poesie, 1664)


Although to a lesser extent than Shakespeare's other tragedies, Othello was cut, during the 1700s, to fit the expectations and style of the period. Any speeches that were considered offensive or obscure were cut to leave more time for extravagant spectacles, songs and dances.

Eighteenth-century audiences wanted Othello to fit into the mould of traditional hero. Lines were cut to eliminate the coarser aspects of his character. Othello's discussion with Iago at the beginning of Act 4, concerning whether Desdemona and Cassio could be 'naked in bed... and not mean harm' [4.1.5] was removed. Othello's epileptic fit was also cut, being deemed, apparently, 'absurd' and unacceptable. Another significant omission was Desdemona's Willow Song: lines like 'If I court moe women, you'll couch with moe men' [4.3.54], being considered too unladylike to be sung by a Venetian aristocrat.


Considered the greatest actor of his age, David Garrick (1717-79) reinserted some of Shakespeare's text but his Othello was greeted with little enthusiasm. The actor and critic Charles Macklin (c.1700-97) disliked Garrick's restored text, claiming that he had only bothered with reinsertions such as the epileptic fit to try and prove himself a more versatile actor than James Quin, who was playing the role at the same time:

'When he was studying that Part, he considered that Quin was a large, corpulent man... therefore... could not fall suddenly to the ground... but he, with his insignificant person, could do it… and therefore reintroduced that shameful scene of epilepsy… which should have been exploded with indignation and contempt… for offering such an absurd passage to a thinking and judicious audience.' (Macklin Garrick's Lear and Othello from Memoirs in the Life of Charles Macklin, Esq. By James Thomas Kirkman)


In 1826 Ira Aldridge was the first black man to play Othello in England. Aldridge was an African American married to a white woman. He moved from America to Europe where he played Othello on many stages. There are very few documents related to his performance, but according to Norman Sanders in his introduction to the New Cambridge Shakespeare edition of the play, those reviews that are still available, claim Aldridge over-intellectualised the role. This was a fault attributed to many actors who played the Moor in the nineteenth century.


Romantics like Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) and William Hazlitt (1778-1830) wrote extensively about the play. Coleridge's assertion that 'Othello should not be considered as a Negro but as a Moorish chief' informed many performances. Coleridge thought that Othello's passion was not the result of jealousy but rather 'agony that the creature, whom he had believed angelic… should be proved worthless' (Shakespeare Criticism, Vol. II). The Romantics argued that Shakespeare lost a great deal in performance and was of more value when studied on the page. However, even they were forced to acknowledge Edmund Kean (1787/90 - 1833) who took on the role in 1814 was one of the greatest Othellos of all time.


Some famous Othellos:


Kean was famous for playing villainous roles, most notably Shylock, Iago and Richard III. He played Othello intermittently for 19 years to both critical and commercial success, choosing to play the Moor with 'tawny' rather than black skin so as not to mask his facial expressions. Working from the Romantic idea of Othello, he was said to portray a heart-wrenching intensity of grief and jealousy that led the character into madness. Hazlitt called Kean's performance 'the finest piece of acting in the world'. Othello is remembered as Kean's last and greatest role. He collapsed during one performance when he was playing Othello to his son Charles's Iago and died a few weeks later, on 25th March 1833.


Henry Irving (1870-1919) and Edwin Booth (1833-93) alternated the roles of Iago and Othello in the 1880s to great commercial success, but little critical acclaim. While admiring Booth's poetic rendering of the part, the critic William Winter, felt that Booth over-intellectualised the role. Meanwhile, Irving's performance was "unequal and wanting in sustained force", according to Joseph Knight. However, both critics had praise for the actors' portrayals of Iago. Booth "made this prodigy of wickedness live in the actual form of nature, as it lives on Shakespeare's page" (Winter), while Irving's Iago "might stand as his masterpiece in the Shakespearean drama" (Knight - see Shakespearean Criticism Vol II)


The threat of 'having the stage stolen… by some young and brilliant Iago' was the reason Olivier (1907-1989) gave for his reluctance to take on the title role in Othello, a role he eventually played to great acclaim in 1964. The production was based on theories by T.S. Eliot and F.R. Leavis, who argued that Othello's downfall was due to his egotism and self-dramatisation. Olivier had played Iago to Ralph Richardson's Othello in Stratford in 1938 and received great reviews for his portrayal of the character. Tyrone Guthrie, director of Richardson's Othello, had consulted the Freudian psychologist Ernest Jones about the relationship between the two characters and as a result, Olivier's Iago was portrayed as having repressed homosexual feelings for the Moor.


Paul Robeson played Othello 3 times, twice in the UK and once in the USA. He first took the role in 1939 at the Savoy Theatre in London, with Dame Peggy Ashcroft as his Desdemona. He then played the Moor again at the Shubert theatre in New York in 1943. Robeson's final portrayal of Othello took place at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1959, by which time most critics were applauding a performance that they felt had grown in dignity and brilliance over time: 'This represents a great advance by Mr Robeson since he played the part in London 29 years ago, for I did not then find I could praise him wholeheartedly… he lacked that air of confident authority which a Negroid general would have to have in order to make a successful commander of European troups. He has that authority now. He is completely in control of his followers, of Cyprus and of himself. Only Iago can shake him.' (W.A. Darlington, Daily Telegraph, April 8th 1959)




This production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre was directed and designed by Franco Zeffirelli. Many critics suggested that the sumptuous design rather overshadowed the actors. 'Zeffirelli has drenched it in splendour with lavish costumes and great monolithic sets of enormous columns and innumerable wide stairs'. This was Desmond Pratt's description in his review in the Yorkshire Post. 'W.H.W' in the Birmingham Mail agreed that Zeffirelli had 'overloaded his stage and he [had] not helped us either to hear the play or come close to its concentrated tragedy.' The production, according to this reviewer, amounted to 'no more than a series of beautiful pictures'. There was some praise for Gielgud's Othello: 'He gave the lines an added beauty, turning single words - even the name Iago - into memorable sound', wrote 'W.T' in The Nottingham Guardian Journal. However, most critics felt that Gielgud portrayed 'nothing of the bluff soldier' (Norman Holbrook, Birmingham Evening Dispatch) and Ian Bannen as Iago was generally described as 'psychotic' but 'inaudible'.


This production, directed by John Barton, had a much sparser set (designed by Julia Trevelyan Oman), consisting of 'a semi-circular colonnade of timber that can be screened or curtained to provide anything from the defences of Cyprus to Desdemona's bedroom' (B.A. Young, Financial Times, 10th August 1971). Mason's Othello was 'big and arrogant and given to making colourful additions to his uniform' (B.A. Young, Financial Times). Critics felt that Mason's 'velvety bass' voice (Ronald Bryden, Observer) and his physical presence were suited to the role, but some felt his portrayal lacked passion. 'In Brewster Mason I do miss the ultimate agony, the tragic splendour', wrote 'W.H.W' in the Birmingham Evening Mail.


Ronald Eyre directed this production, which was described by most critics as focusing on the domestic rather than the military and political aspects of the play. The Evening Standard said that Eyre's production '[emphasised] what a private play Othello really is'. Sinden's Othello had a 'savage fury' (N.H. Solihull News, 11th August 1979), and many critics noted the moment when he emptied 'his wife's laundry basket and sniffing the sheets for evidence of copulation' (Michael Billington, Guardian, 8th August 1979). Suzanne Bertish was praised for her feisty performance as Desdemona. There was 'a touch of Joan of Arc' in her performance according to B.A. Young (Financial Times, 8th August 1979). Young goes on to describe how she 'even wears a soldier's uniform for her landing in Cyprus on D-Day'.


'Onto a stage of midnight black, with everyone on it wearing black, steps a strange aloof figure in a dazzling white robe. A grey bearded ancient, mysteriously smiling, he might be some grave Indian mystic on a visit to an unknown planet.' This was the opening to John Barber's Daily Telegraph review of Terry Hands' production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. As suggested by Barber, Ralph Koltai's setting for this Othello was a black box with various symbols to suggest locations: 'For Cyprus we get sliding smoked-Perspex screens edged with gold and a lion symbolising Venetian imperialism' (Michael Billington, Guardian, 26th September 1985). Kingsley did not use makeup for his Moor, but played him as an accented Arab. The physical relationship between Ben Kingsley's Othello and David Suchet's Iago was the starting point for many reviews of this production. Michael Billington, amongst others, noted that Suchet followed 'the Freudian line by implying Iago is deeply in love with Othello and manically jealous of Desdemona'. While the critic for the Yorkshire Post pointed out that 'Both are small men with dark eyes, balding heads and beards... Suchet... and Kingsley exploit their physical similarities to suggest that Othello and Iago are two halves of one whole.' Since this production, the part of Othello has been played at the RSC by black actors.


Willard White played Othello at The Other Place, the RSC's studio space, with Ian McKellen as Iago and Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona. The production was directed by Trevor Nunn. White, famous as an opera singer, brought a 'rich, powerful' voice and a 'magnanimous and commanding' presence to the role (Michael Ratcliffe, Observer, 27th August 1989). However, critics felt that McKellen dominated this production with his 'devastating' portrayal of Iago, 'the type who would make a first-rate sadistic sergeant major, or an efficient operator of gas chambers.' (John Peter, Sunday Times, 27th August 1989). McKellen's Iago was 'constantly attending to people and things - mixing punch, applying bandages, mopping brows… He is the person everyone instinctively turns to for advice' (Harry Eyres, The Times, 26th August 1989). In this production, Iago was 'so choked with tension, he [gulped] at a narcotic for sweet, explosive relief' (Ratcliffe). Imogen Stubbs was praised for her 'strong' Desdemona who, according to Harry Eyres, 'certainly [did] not "go gentle into that good night" '.


Ray Fearon was the first black actor since Robeson to play the role of Othello on the main stage at the RSC. He was 31 when he played the Moor and references in the text to Othello's age ('I am declined into the vale of years' [8.8.267-8]) were cut. Some critics felt that Fearon's youth was against him: 'Unless the veteran general is his own age, Brabantio… becomes merely - and inadequately - racist' wrote Anthony Holden in the Observer. However, John Peter praised Fearon's 'magnificent stillness and dignity' (Sunday Times). Richard McCabe's portrayal of Iago was described by Holden as 'blokeish'. McCabe captured 'the thwarted, class-conscious RSM in Iago, the able ranker who will never be allowed to cross the social divide'.




The Italian actor Tommaso Salvini, played Othello at the end of the 19th century, touring America and Europe. In his autobiography he wrote about researching the role: 'I pored over the history of the Venetian Republic and that of the Moorish invasion of Spain: I studied the passions of the Moors, their art of war, their religious beliefs' (Leaves from the Autobiography of Tommaso Salvini, T. Fisher Unwin, 1893). His performance was considered on a level with Kean's for brilliance, passion and accuracy of portrayal. The American novelist, Henry James, saw the production in Boston in 1883 and wrote that 'the last two acts constitute the finest piece of tragic acting that I know'. However, James did add that an English Othello of equal greatness 'would touch us more nearly still'. Salvini spoke the role in Italian while the actors performing with him spoke in English. Virginia Mason Vaughan suggests that this 'emphasised not simply the actor's differentness from, his audience but also Othello's differentness from the other characters in Shakespeare's play' (Othello - A Contextual History, V. Mason Vaughan.)


In a similar way, a 1997 production in Washington DC presented Patrick Stewart as a white Othello, while Bianca, the Cypriots and Brabantio's servants were black. Jude Kelly, who directed the production, made the following comment concerning her choice of casting:

"I don't think we're trying to make any more major a point than Shakespeare himself was trying to make, we're just making it differently. What's fascinating for me is that you have 22 African American actors onstage who know what racism is about, and one white British actor who may know the effects of racism but has never experienced it the way they have. So the images of racial hostility flip back and forth. What it all means, I think, will depend very much on the colour of the person who's watching."


Othello in many forms:


There are two operas based on Shakespeare's Othello. The first was composed by Gioacchino Rossini in 1816 and is now rarely performed. In this version Iago became another of Desdemona's rejected admirers, Roderigo was a passionate young suitor who fought a duel with Othello for Desdemona's love. There was no handkerchief to be lost. Instead, a love letter from Desdemona to Othello containing a lock of her hair, was intercepted and misinterpreted due to an incorrect address.


Giuseppe Verdi's Othello is more closely related to Shakespear's play than Rossini's version. However, the text is cut from 3,500 lines in the original play to just 800 lines for the opera. It focuses on the drama between Othello, Iago and Desdemona at the expense of many of the other characters and the opera opens on Othello's arrival in Cyprus, therefore, eliminating Act One of the play.


The twentieth century saw three major film versions of the play, perhaps most famously Orson Welles' 1952 version. In 2002 Othello was made into an ITV drama, modernising the text and setting the action within the police force. The production starred Eamonn Walker as police chief John Othello, with Keeley Hawes as his girlfriend Desi. Christopher Eccleston played John's best friend, Ben Jago.

Stage History by Jennifer Pick

Links to related sections: 'Using Film' in the Teachers Section and 'Casting Othello' in Learning.