Othello in popular culture uncensored profanity. "Othello", an adaptation by Oscar Zárate, Oval Projects Ltd (1985). It was reprinted in 2005 by Can of Worms Press and includes the complete text of the play. In January 2009, a manga adaptation was published in the United Kingdom, with art by Ryuta Osada. It is part of the Manga Shakespeare series by Richard Appignanesi, and is set in Venice in carnival season. Christopher Moore combines "Othello" and "The Merchant of Venice" in his 2014 comic novel "The Serpent of Venice", in which he makes Portia (from "The Merchant of Venice") and Desdemona (from "Othello") sisters. All
Othello seeing interracial marriages as "aberrations" that could end badly. Given this view of "Othello", the play become especially controversial in apartheid-era South Africa where interracial marriages were banned and performances of "Othello" were discouraged. The first major screen production casting a black actor as Othello did not come until 1995, with Laurence Fishburne opposite Kenneth Branagh's Iago. In the past, Othello would often have been portrayed by a white actor in blackface or in a black mask: more recent actors who chose to 'black up' include Ralph Richardson (1937); John Gielgud (1961); Laurence Olivier (1964); Anthony Hopkins (1981), and Orson