Episode 205:

Last time Ben Jonson’s retelling of a slice of Roman Imperial history failed to impress at the Globe theatre. As an actor in that play Shakespeare had first-hand experience of the way the audience in the theatre could turn on the poet and the players alike, but it is difficult to think that his confidence in his own work was much dented by the experience. His next play ‘The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice’ is, I would say, brim full of the confidence of an experienced playwright who knew that his play would both entertain on several levels and provoke much thought in the audience.

The dating and first performance of the play

The early publication history of the play

Details from a performance in 1610

The source material for the play

The structure of the play

The significance of Venice and Cyprus

The structural balances in the play

The poetry and imagery in the play

The use of language as a dramatic technique

The urgency of the opening of the play

The character of Iago and how he manipulates his victims

The character of Brabantio

What the Elizabethan audience might have thought of a ‘moor’

Queen Elizabeth’s attitude to immigrants from Africa

How Shakespeare handled the racial aspects of the play

The character of Micheal Cassio

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