Performing Protest in Cross-Cultural Spaces: Paul Robeson and Othello

• Authors: Robert Sawyer
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

When the famous African-American actor and singer Paul Robeson played the lead in Shakespeare’s Othello in London in 1930, tickets were in high demand during the production’s first week. The critical response, however, was less positive, although the reviews unanimously praised his bass-baritone delivery. When Robeson again played Othello on Broadway thirteen years later, critics praised not only his voice but also his acting, the drama running for 296 performances. My argument concerning Robeson uses elements first noted by Henri Lefebvre in his seminal work, The Production of Space, while I also draw on Paul Connerton’s work on commemorative practices. Using spatial and memorial theories as a backdrop for examining his two portrayals, I suggest that Robeson’s nascent geopolitical awareness following the 1930 production, combined with his already celebrated musical voice, allowed him to perform the role more dramatically in 1943.

Keywords

EN

Paul Robeson; Othello; Savoy Theatre; Margaret Webster; Spanish Civil War; Henri Lefebvre; Peggy Ashcroft; All God’s Chillun Got Wings; “Ol’ Man River”; Show Boat; Josè Ferrer; Paul Connerton; commemoration; fascism; protest

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 30
• Pages: 77-90

Dates

published

2017-06-30

Contributors

author

Robert Sawyer

• East Tennessee State University

References

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• Bourdieu, Pierre. “Introduction.” Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge Classics, 2010.
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• Coleman, Robert. The Daily Mirror (20 October 1943).
• Connerton, Paul. How Societies Remember. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989.
• Duberman, Martin B. Paul Robeson. New York: Knopf, 1988.
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• Roscoe, Burton. The World Telegram (20 October 1943).
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• Van Gelder, Robert. “Robeson Remembers – Interview with the Star of Othello Partly about His Past.” The New York Times (14 January 1944). Rpt. in Forner 152-154.
• Vitkus, Daniel. Turning Turk: English Theater and the Multicultural Mediterranean, 1570-1630. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, 2008.
• Webster, Margaret. Don’t Put Your Daughter on the Stage. New York: Knopf, 1972.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/mstap-2017-0006