Shakespeare, Blackface and Race: Different Perspectives

102 Pages·2020·1.914 MB·English

by  Coen Heijes

This Element addresses the topical debate on blackface, H Shakespeare,
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Blackface and Race
debate has taken a radically diff erent course in the Netherlands,
a country historically perceived as tolerant and culturally
close to the UK. Through several case studies, including the
Diff erent Perspectives
Van Hove Othello of 2003/2012 and the latest, controversial
2018/2020 Othello, the fi rst main house production with a black
actor as Othello, the author analyses the interaction between
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blackface and (institutional) racism in Dutch society and theatre h
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and how Othello has become an active player in this debate. e
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ElementsinShakespearePerformance
editedby
W.B.Worthen
BarnardCollege
SHAKESPEARE, BLACKFACE
AND RACE
Different Perspectives
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y Coen Heijes
tisrev University of Groningen
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108827829
DOI:10.1017/9781108900546
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tisre Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
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in andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
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silb ISSN2516-0109(print)
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Shakespeare, Blackface and Race
Different Perspectives
ElementsinShakespearePerformance
DOI:10.1017/9781108900546
Firstpublishedonline:September2020
CoenHeijes
UniversityofGroningen
Authorforcorrespondence:CoenHeijes,[email protected]
Abstract:ThisElementaddressesthetopicaldebateon
blackface,raceandOthello.WithShakespeare
performancestudiesbeingratherAnglo-centric,theauthor
sse exploreshowthisdebatehastakenaradicallydifferent
rP courseintheNetherlands,acountryhistoricallyperceived
y
tisre astolerantandculturallyclosetotheUK.Throughseveral
v
inU casestudies,includingtheVanHoveOthelloof2003/2012
egd andthelatest,controversial2018/2020Othello,thefirst
irbm mainhouseproductionwithablackactorasOthello,the
a
C y authoranalysestheinteractionbetweenblackfaceand
b
en (institutional)racisminDutchsocietyandtheatreandhow
iln
o d Othellohasbecomeanactiveplayerinthisdebate.
e
h
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P 6 KEYWORDS:Othello,blackface,race,performance,Shakespeare
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Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Context: Dutch Tolerance, Blackface and Racism 7
3 Othello after World War II: White Actors and
Blackface 21
4 Movement from the Fringe: Ignorance, Indifference
sse and Indignation 37
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C y References 74
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Shakespeare,BlackfaceandRace 1
1 Introduction
In December 2019, the annual worldwide controversy regarding the Dutch
character Black Pete (an extremely popular tradition among kids, in which
whiteadultsblackentheirfaces)brokeoutonceagain,attractingmorecritical
attention than ever before. Various news outlets such as the Guardian, the
Independent,the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times,the Indian Express,
FrankfurterAllgemeine,BBC,CNNandAlJazeera,tonameafew,highlighted
the ongoing debate on blackface traditions, and celebrities such as Kim
Kardashian,TreySongzandAmericanrapperWakaFlockaFlameweighed
inonthedebate,speakingoutagainstthetradition.In2018,aDutchOthello
productionbyDariaBukvic´alsoenteredthiscontroversyandchallengedDutch
blackfacetraditionsandinstitutionalracisminDutchsociety.Interestingly,this
wasalsothefirstmainhouseproductionintheNetherlandswhereinOthello
wasplayedbyablackperson.WhiletheuseofblackfaceinOthellohaslong
beendiscreditedinanglophonecountries,thishasnotbeenthecaseinmany
othercountries,althoughmainstreamShakespearecriticismconveys,attimes,a
sse somewhat unquestioningacceptance that blackface condemnation repre-
rP y sentsaglobalphenomenon.WithShakespeareperformancestudiesbeing
tisre Anglo-centric,thescholarlycommunityisoftenignorantofcasestudies
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in that examine the interaction of institutional racism, society, blackface
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eg traditions and history and how these interact with Othello productions.
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irb Inthisstudy,theauthortakesadifferentapproachtoblackfaceinOthello
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aC in a country which is, out of all EU countries, probably politically and
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b e culturally the closest to the UK and is also historically perceived as a
n
iln tolerant country. As such, this Element analyses not only the Dutch
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de tradition of blackface in Othello, but also how this responded to and
h
silb even supported a possible paradox in society: the coexistence of institu-
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P 6 tionalracismandxenophobiaalongsidethe(self-)perceptionofatolerant
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50 societyanddenialofracialdiscrimination.
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18 1.1 The Demise of Blackface in Othello
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/71 AnoverwhelmingmajorityofresearchonOthelloandblackfaceisbasedon
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.0 thesituationinanglophonecountries,withtheUKandtheUSAbeingthe
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/gro most researched countries. The consensus is that up to the 1960s, mainly
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2 ElementsinShakespearePerformance
whiteactorswouldplayOthelloinmovieandtheatreproductions,whilethe
useofblackfaceseemedtobestandardpracticeinmostinstances.Ingeneral
studies and sourcebooks on Othello or Shakespeare and race, there is an
almostparadigmaticgroupofexamplesforthistraditionusedrepeatedlyin
illustratingtheperformancehistoryoftheatreandmovieproductionsofthe
play(e.g.Alexander&Wells,2000;Hadfield,2003;Hankey,2005;Jarrett-
Macauley, 2017; Kolin, 2002; Neill, 2006; Potter, 2002; Thompson, 2006,
2016;Vaughan,1994;Vaughan&Cartwright,1991).Theseworksinvariably
includeagroupofearlyblackactors,suchasIraAldridgeandPaulRobeson,
whoatthetimewereaminorityinapredominantlywhiteactorenvironment
fortherole.Likewise,post-warblackfaceperformancesbywhiteactorssuch
asLaurenceOlivierandOrson Wellesarealsogenerallyincludedin these
studies.WhileintheUK,thereactiontoOlivier’sOthellointhemid-1960s
wasoverallpositive,theUSreceptionexpressedfarmorediscomfort.
From the 1960s onwards, a gradual decline can be seen in the use of
blackface,oftenexplainedbyfactorssuchastheincreaseinawarenessabout
race,thecivilrightsmovement,unwantedassociationswithminstrelshowsand
sse growingracialtensionsinsociety.Althoughblackfacecontinuedintothe1980s
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ytisre iwnitthheAUnKth,olnigyhHteropmkainkse-auspOthtahnelbloefionrethweasBBbeCingShaapkpelsiepde.arTehSee1ri9e8s1, iOstoheftlelon,
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in
U considered a turning point in the British tradition after an outcry over the
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gd castingdecisionandtherefusaltoaddressracialissues(Potter,2002:154–6).
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m BothintheUSAandintheUK,whiteactorsretreatedfromtherole,theuseof
a
C y blackface was increasingly discredited, and a consensus developed that only
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en actorsofcolourcouldplaytherolethereon(Thompson,2016:83).Looking
ilno backontheOthellowithLaurenceOlivier,Rozett(1991:265)mentionedhow
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eh shewished thatshe had notshown themovie toher students anddescribed
silbu Olivier’sdepictionofOthelloas‘dated–onecannotimagineawhite,promi-
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6 nentactoremployingsuchexaggeratedblackfacemakeuptoday’.Whileargu-
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00 ablytrueoftheShakespearetraditionintheUKandtheUSA,theremarkalso
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0 highlighted the discrepancy between these developments and those in many
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87 othercountriesatthetime.
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/71 Attheendofthetwentiethcenturyandduringthetwenty-first,tensionsin
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.0 theMiddleEast,theeffectsof9/11andtheongoingwarsinAfghanistanand
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/gro IraqalsofoundtheirwayintoOthello.Moremilitary-orientedproductions,a
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Shakespeare,BlackfaceandRace 3
focusonOthello’sArabroots,therelationtotensionswithMuslimsandthe
psychological effects of war on soldiers became increasingly important
themes in productions of the play. Recent prominent examples include
NicholasHytner’sproductionintheNationalTheatre(2013),RonDaniels’
Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Othello (2016) and Richard Twyman and
AbdulRahman-Malik’sOthellointheTobaccoFactory(2017).Whilethese
productionspresentedOthelloaboveallasamanratherthanasarepresen-
tative of a specific country or race, he was positioned as a Muslim and a
militaryman.Althoughtheracialtopicbecamelesscentralintheseproduc-
tions,theuseofblackfaceorwhiteactorswithoutblackfaceforthetitlerole
in Othello had practically disappeared by this time, with some notable
exceptions, in which case these choices were inevitably a prominent topic
ofdebateinreviewsandacademicresearch.Aconstantlyrecurringexample
in performance research to illustrate this point was Jude Kelly’s 1997
Shakespeare Theatre Othello with Patrick Stewart as Othello, surrounded
byanalmostentirelyblackcast(Hankey,2005:107–11;Iyengar,2002:118–
24;Potter,2002:179–84).
sse Thesameyear,theperformanceofyoungblackactorDavidHarewoodas
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ytisre OreltuhcetlaloncaetitnhecaNstaitniognwalhTiteheaacttroersledastoOathdeilslocu,swsihoinchinsoBmrietischonmsieddeiraeadbroeuvtetrhsee
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in
U discrimination(Neill,2006:65;Wheatcroft,1997).Inthedebateonraceand
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gd castinginOthello,actorHughQuarshieandplaywrightKwameKwei-Armah
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m raisedthetopicofwhetherblackactorsshouldconsiderifitisethicalatallto
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C y playOthello,arguingthatitmightriskreinforcingtheracialstereotypesthat
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en pervade the play (Quarshie, 1999; Kwei-Armah, 2004). Further, almost two
ilno decades after David Harewood’s performance, actor and director Steven
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eh BerkoffandShakespearescholarStanleyWellsurgedthetheatreindustryto
silbu ‘growup’andallowwhiteactorstoplaysuchroles(Berkoff,2015;Wells,2015).
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6 However,despitethesediscussions,whiteactorsarestillararityforthisroleand
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00 inevitablyinvitecomments,whiletheuseofblackfaceitselfseemstobeathing
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0 ofthepastinOthelloproductionsonthemainanglophonestage.Asblackface
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87 recentlyalsostartedtodisappearfromtheoperaticOtello,withLatviantenor
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/71 AleksandrsAntonenkoabandoningthepracticeinthe2015MetropolitanOpera
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1.0 production,reviewersreportedthatthechangecamemore‘thanageneration
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/gro after leading theatre companies stopped “blacking up” white actors to play
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4 ElementsinShakespearePerformance
OthelloinShakespeare’splay’(Cooper,2015).Whilethisistrueofthetradition
inmanyanglophonecountries,theperspectivemighthavebeenlessvalidfor
otherpartsoftheworld.
1.2 Non-anglophone Othello
Whilemuch could be said about the dichotomy between anglophone and
non-anglophone Shakespeare, it is a differentiation which is commonly
made when comparing Othello productions around the world. Although
most attention has focused on the USA and the UK, so-called global
Shakespeare, also known by many other terms, has increased interest in
andstudyofOthelloinothercountries.However,castingdecisionsandthe
use of blackface are in many countries still relatively unexplored. Kolin
(2002: 53–8) pointed out how in non-Western countries the signifiers for
race were different, how the importance of ‘Otherness’ gained a new
meaning,andhowthespecifictheatricalandpoliticalconditionsinfluenced
productions.Loomba(2008:129–36)indicatedhowracialpoliticscouldbe
sse completelyerasedfromtheplayinIndiaorhowOthellocouldalsobeused
rP y toaddressracisminIndia.Potter(2002:174–9)arguedthattheinvolvement
tisre intheslavetradewouldhavecausedproductionsofOthellointheUSAand
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inU theUKtobe‘alwaysmoretingedwithuneasethanthoseintherestofthe
egd world’, although also providing examples of how a Japanese, German and
irbm SouthAfricanproductionofOthellorespondedindifferentwaystonational
aC y racial discourses. Likewise, Thompson (2016: 97–102) included a South
b
e African, a German and a Singaporean Othello in her production overview
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ilno of the play, and Hankey (2005: 93–7) included a production from South
d
eh Africa. The 1990 South African Othello by Janet Suzman, directed at the
silb MarketTheatreinJohannesburg,has by nowturnedintoanotherexample
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P 6 which has entered the ‘performance canon’ and is unfailingly discussed in
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00 overviews. Apart from its content, her use of the English language, the
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80 entanglement of British and South African history, the close relation with
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87 theBritishtheatreworldanditsreadyaccessibilitymighthaveaddedtoits
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/7 prominence.
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1.0 Whiletheanglophoneandsemi-anglophoneproductionsreferredtointhe
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