Hugh Quarshie: Is Othello a racist play? | Debates

Hugh Quarshie: Is Othello a racist play? | Debates | Royal Shakespeare Company

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8 жыл бұрын

Highlights of a debate held on Sunday 9 August 2015 at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. This was the second in a series of supporting discussions bringing together a variety of expert speakers and commentators to discuss issues and topics raised by our summer season of plays, including The Merchant of Venice, Othello and The Jew of Malta.
Speakers discuss whether Othello can be considered a racist play. The debate drew on our then current production, and examined what it means to stage a contemporary interpretation of the play.
You can hear more by clicking the ‘i’ icon on the top right of the film to skip to the audio recording of any of the speakers, or to the full length audio recording of the event.

Пікірлер: 20

@karenfawcett4500 6 жыл бұрын

i totally agree i could listen to him all day he would be great at doing audiobooks he has got a soothing voice

@FredFuchs77 6 жыл бұрын

What a beautiful voice

@davidsconnelly2613 6 жыл бұрын

Brilliant!

@1965zimmy 4 ай бұрын

Great commentary on the play by Quarshie.

@PEACEFULLNESS1450 5 жыл бұрын

Any audiobooks?

@hellybelle5 2 жыл бұрын

It's a play about insanely twisted jealousy.

@Jalcolm1 Жыл бұрын

Othello’s jealousy is no different than Leontes in Winter’s Tale. Is Lear an Ageist play? When a racist sees Othello or Merchant of Venice they have a racist understanding. Why give a racist so much power to define what Bardolatry provides. For me Othello is first of all about Iago’s sadism and genius. Shakespeare seems clear to me… Desdemona is too pure and Othello is too noble. The play purges pity and fear just like Aristotle said it would. It’s not racist.

@tonyausten2168 4 жыл бұрын

I think we are being glib in thinking Othello was black in the first place. Othello was a moor, there are recorded historical documents that refer Arab or middle eastern merchants as moors. Just as there were Jew merchants. (Shylock of Shakespeare?) I don't believe Shakespeare ever encountered a true Black person. At least not evident in his play, I might be wrong. As to your point of Shakespeare not being concerned with speaking in depth about Othello, well, that is absurd. Shakespeare did speak about Othello is details. or Depth. Shakespeare clearly states how strong, manly & powerful Othello was or is.He is a military man, with a reputation for courage in battle and good judgment in military matters. Is that racist? No, it is fact. It speaks for itself in volume, almost screams out loud. Now, granted Shakespeare never gives Othello an internal soliloquy angst as Shylock the Jew Merchant did get! In Merchant of Venice we hear the Jew Merchant speak his internal angst beautifully ...in a Soliloquy...... "Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?"

@margaretgaskin4928 2 жыл бұрын

Of course Shakespeare encountered a black person. In a city of just a mile square there were hundreds of people identified as black - written into records as "a negro" or "blackamoor" on registers of aliens. Not to mention British-born black people who remain invisible to history. He exposes the racism of society around Othello while he is still the hero - he sees it around him and disapproved of it. But, like so many people today, he does not have sufficient insight into his own unconscious prejudices. It's there in The Merchant of Venice too. It's much easier to see in Richard III where he very much identifies a twisted body with a twisted mind. Shakespeare was a genius, not a saint.

@tonyausten2168 2 жыл бұрын

@@margaretgaskin4928 Shakespeare was also crazy. To know intimately the character & mind of Iago, is to be mentally Mad.

@jackcooper3307 Жыл бұрын

You don’t think Shakespeare ever saw a black person? What?..

@Makneuro07 Жыл бұрын

Black people were all over Europe before Shakespeare was born

@tonyausten2168 Жыл бұрын

@@jackcooper3307 He might have seen a black man but he never wrote about a black person.