OTHELLO

SHAKESPEARE SCRIPT, STAGE AND SCREENby Bevington, Welsh and Greenwald

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 fableIf 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 servantTommaso Salvini as Othello

LANGUAGE & MUSIC

Strong initial contrast between Othello (verse) and Iago (prose)

Othello’s language erodes as play progresses (1.3.166-167) 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

Women are most victimized in the play, yet Emilia’s speech (4.3.87-106) rivals Shylocks “What is a Jew?”

The Moorish ambassadorto the English court 1601, sought an alliance againstSpain.

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 mid-19th 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 ChristopherPlummer 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 byFranco Zeffirelli starringPlacido 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.