Othello: A guide to the text and the play in performance

Abstract

Othello is one of Shakespeare's most theatrically striking plays. This Handbook focuses on Othello as a dramatic work which exploits the resources of the early modern stage and yet still challenges contemporary theatres. Exploring race and gender as performance issues throughout the study, Stuart Hampton-Reeves: • examines the play's earliest performances and the problem of staging darkness on Shakespeare's stage • analyses the play from a performance point of view scene by scene, line by line • surveys key productions and films, tracing the play's move away from mainstream theatres • draws together the latest criticism on Othello's treatment of identity and sexuality