Othello: Quick Facts

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Photos and Videos

Playbill for a performance of Othello

Paul Robeson and Uta Hagen in Othello

Othello, as portrayed by Laurence Fishburne (centre), with Irène Jacob (left) as Desdemona and Kenneth Branagh (right) as Iago, 1995

Andrei Popov as Iago leans in and grips Yevgeni Vesnik as Roderigo, who wears a helmet, in a dramatic moment from the 1955 Russian film Othello, directed by Sergei Yutkevich.

Paul Robeson enjoying camaraderie with Othello costars

“Ira Frederick Aldridge as Othello,” painting by Henry Perronet Briggs, c. 1830; in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Learn about the characters of Othello as discussed by the cast and crew of a Folger Shakespeare Library production

Hear about the three language devices used in Shakespeare's Othello - words as power, words as characters, and words as a conversation with the audience

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