Othello (Orson Welles stage production) Desdemona - or Shakespeare, according to which newspaper you read." Othello (Orson Welles stage production) Othello was a 1951 production of William Shakespeare's play of the same name, which was produced, directed by and starring Orson Welles in his first appearance on the London stage. In 1948, Orson Welles began work on a self-financed film of "Othello", which was not completed until 1952. Filming was sporadic, and he frequently stopped the production to take on other acting jobs (including "The Third Man") to raise more funds. In 1951, Welles had completed principal photography, but was still trying to raise money
Othello negative connotations. Othello was frequently performed as an Arab Moor during the 19th century. He was first played by a black man on the London stage in 1833 by the most important of the nineteenth-century Othellos, the African American Ira Aldridge who had been forced to leave his home country to make his career. Regardless of what Shakespeare intended by calling Othello a "Moor" – whether he meant that Othello was a Muslim or a black man or both – in the 19th century and much of the 20th century, many critics tended to see the tragedy in racial terms,