Othello questions in Shakespeare's text. Companies have also chosen to share the role between several actors during a performance. Canadian playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald's 1988 award-winning play Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) is a revision of "Othello" and "Romeo and Juliet" in which an academic deciphers a cryptic manuscript she believes to be the original source for the tragedies, and is transported into the plays themselves. "Othello" opened at the Donmar Warehouse in London on 4 December 2007, directed by Michael Grandage, with Chiwetel Ejiofor as Othello, Ewan McGregor as Iago, Tom Hiddleston as Cassio, Kelly Reilly as Desdemona and Michelle Fairley
Desdemona as "Othello" and out of character for Desdemona. Today, however, the purpose of the passage is sometimes viewed as a depiction of Desdemona's awareness of the way of the world, and her persistence in pursuing the exchanges as a characteristic innocent overconfidence displayed elsewhere in the play (3.3.41–83, 3.4.90ff). On 8 December 1660, Thomas Killigrew's new King's Company acted "Othello" at their Vere Street theatre, with Margaret Hughes as Desdemona – possibly the first time a professional actress appeared on a public stage in England. She played Desdemona in the performance of "Othello" seen by Samuel Pepys on 6 February