E X T E N S I O N OTHELLO ON THE STAGE The history of Othello on the stage is in part the history of the actors that have played this role. As the various productions have demonstrated, Iago is the starring1 character. Othello was first acted at court, in front of King James I, on 1st November 1604. Richard Burbage (1567-1619) performed the role of Othello. He was the leading actor in the King s Men Company, and the very man2 Shakespeare had in mind when he created the character. Probably Burbage, when he acted Paul Robeson. Othello, took inspiration from the illustrations of national costumes and races (1598) by the Italian artist Cesare Vecellio (1545-1611) and from the portraits3 of Moorish ambassadors to Queen Elizabeth. In the following centuries Othello was represented sometimes as a black man wearing a British army uniform, sometimes as a more domesticated4 Moor, with a large powdered5 wig6 and white gloves over a blackened7 skin. The most famous Othello of the 19th century was Edmund Kean (1789-1833 ), who stressed the oriental nature of Othello, portraying him as a tawny8 Othello , not as a negro.The first black to play Othello was Ira Aldridge. A Maryland native, he was accepted on stage only in England and Germany in the 1830-1840s, but not in America. Paul Robeson, son of an ex slave9, gave Othello the characteristics of a noble warrior and was the first black American who starred in America. When as Othello he kissed Uta Hagen (Desdemona) in Broadway in 1943, it marked the first time a black actor had kissed a white actress on a major American stage. The most famous Othello on the stage in the 20th century was Laurence Olivier (1907-89), who played a dark, ferocious primitive Moor and said: It s tremendously sexual because it s a black man. This Mediterranean tragedy shows conflicts and prejudices which still exist today. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. starring: principale. the very man: proprio l uomo. portrait: ritratto. domesticated: incivilito. powdered: incipriato. 6. 7. 8. 9. 14 wig: parrucca. blacken: tinto di nero. tawny: dalla pelle scura. ex slave: un tempo schiavo.