#Othello regional park skin#
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It may be politically correct, but in this play about race there is no getting away from its original meaning. The meaning of the theme is diluted in such a reading. In the current Shakespeare in the Park production, using color blind casting, Santiago-Hudson chooses to make at least five of the leading characters people of color so that Othello is no longer an outsider, nor are they. In the recent Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi’s Otello, Otello was white which left no reason for his jealousy if he was identical to all the Venetians around him. Iago also ensnares Roderigo, a rejected suitor of Desdemona, in a plot to gain her for him once she grows tired of the Moor. As Cassio and Desdemona grew up together and he is viewed as a handsome man with a smooth manner, the sort of suitor one would have expected her to marry, Othello is predisposed to suspect him of evil intentions towards his wife. Iago spends the rest of the play planting lies in Othello’s mind and fueling his jealousy. Iago vows to destroy the naively susceptible Othello who obviously has own doubts about why Desdemona chose him over the Venetian nobles. When Othello chooses officer Michael Cassio as his lieutenant, he infuriates Ensign Iago who also believes that he may have slept with his wife Emilia though he has no evidence.

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Her appearance before the Doge of Venice (here called the Duke) puts an end to the question as to whether she chose him willingly, but she is rejected by her prejudiced father who washes his hands of her.Ĭhukwudi Iwuji as Othello and Heather Lind as Desdemona in a scene from the Public Theater’s 2018 Free Shakespeare in the Park production of “Othello” (Photo credit: Joan Marcus)Īn imminent attack by the Turkish fleet causes the Senate to send the newly wed Othello to the island of Cyprus, where his wife chooses to go with him. When he elopes with the very white Desdemona, daughter of the Venetian senator Brabantio, a hue and cry is raised as to whether he kidnapped her and has enchanted her, or whether she married him of her own free will.

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Although he is esteemed as an officer and a strategist, in 17 th century Venice prejudice and racism runs deep and he is an object of scorn, referred to often by his skin color, rather than his rank.

An inoffensive, uncontroversial version of a classic Elizabethan play.Īs written, Shakespeare’s tragedy is the story of an outsider, Othello, a Moor or Arab from North Africa who has risen to the position of general in the Venetian army. The cast led by Corey Stoll, Chukwudi Iwuji, Heather Lind and Alison Wright is competent and engrossing as is the storytelling and the clear diction, but there are few memorable performances. On the other hand, that is also its major weakness. Victor Gluck, Editor-in-ChiefThe strength of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s unfussy production of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello is that it is conventional and traditional, with the inclusion of one contemporary idea.