So when thinking about Shakespeare and race,
I think people have to think about
multiple different time periods because
clearly what was going on in
Shakespeare's world is not exactly the
same as what's going on in the 21st
century.
Nonetheless there are some clear through
lines that trace from Shakespeare into
our 21st century world. In terms of a
little historical background, we know
that there were a few Africans that were
used as court servants and
slaves in the courts of Henry VII,
Elizabeth I, and even
James I. And in fact, James's
coronation promenade into London, he
wanted to be pulled by lions in a
chariot so he could ride through the
streets of London on a chariot. It was
too cold and lions weren't available so
he had two Africans pull the chariots
instead. So there were a few Africans in
the early modern period and clearly
Shakespeare was aware of the kind of
global expanding global world around him
and he figured that into many of his
plays. Most people will think about
Othello and thinking about Shakespeare
and race or perhaps Merchant of Venice
or Titus Andronicus. There are references
to race in many of the plays that don't
have explicitly racialized characters.
It may surprise some people that there
has been a kind of heated debate among
black actors about whether or not to
play Othello now. Many black actors are
refusing to play the role, arguing that
since it was a role written by a white
man intended for a white actor in black
makeup, then it doesn't really
necessitate a real black person
playing the role. In fact, they argue that
this is a role about racial
impersonation instead of about a
racialized identity.
That's only a few black actors who have
refused to do it and many more have
found a quite powerful role for them and
for their careers but many of them have
to do a kind of mental calculus about
how to make sense of playing the role. So
for example, Adrian Lester who recently
played the role in London at the
National Theatre to great acclaim, argued
vociferously that Othello is not a play
about race at all, that it was actually
about a militaristic society and how men
interact with each other in those kind
of homo-social worlds and what happens
when you throw in to the mix a woman and
a love story. So for him to kind of wrap
his head around the role, he really had
to take race out of the calculation and
was hoping, he said he was hoping that
audiences would see him as a soldier
instead of as a black soldier.
