Othello on Othello. Although characters described as "moors" appear in two other Shakespeare plays ("Titus Andronicus" and "The Merchant of Venice"), such characters were a rarity in contemporary theatre, and it was unknown for them to take centre stage. There is no consensus over Othello's ethnic origin. E. A. J. Honigmann, the editor of the Arden Shakespeare edition, concluded that Othello's race is ambiguous. "Renaissance representations of the Moor were vague, varied, inconsistent, and contradictory. As critics have established, the term 'Moor' referred to dark-skinned people in general, used interchangeably with terms such as 'African', 'Somali', 'Ethiopian', 'Negro', 'Arab', 'Berber', and
The Merchant of Venice (1961 film) The Merchant of Venice (1961 film) The Merchant of Venice is a 1961 Australian TV adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare. The "Sydney Morning Herald" called it "the most important television play of the year. and among Sydney's actresses the role of Portia was the most sought after." It went to the relatively inexperienced Tanya Halesworth who was a presented at the ABC. Director Alan Burke said he saw Portia "as a beautiful debutante, the darling of the deb set of her day. I wanted a beautiful girl for the role, one with wit, astuteness, vivacity; but one with