Othello’s ‘travels’ history’ illuminated anew: Beyond black and white in Iqbal Khan’s RSC revival (2015)

Abstract

Two consummate black actors took on the lead roles in Iqbal Khan’s 2015 revival of Othello with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC): the British-Ghanaian actor Hugh Quarshie played Othello and the British-Tanzanian/Zimbabwean actor Lucian Msamati made theatre history as the RSC’s first black Iago. The play did not come across as either Othello- or Iago-centred but as a choreographed dance between Quarshie and Msamati, which involved trustable coordination with the cast. Their performances in a multicultural and racially diverse world increased the available data to arrest our spectating gaze and so expanded received notions of what the play is ‘about’.