Disney's latest version of " Little Mermaid " movie is played by African-American actor Halle Bailey. As soon as the trailer was released, it triggered a war of words online. One side believes that the African Little Mermaid does not conform to the original work, but the other side believes that the original work is the imagined fairy tale world, and the Little Mermaid can be of any race.
"Little Mermaid" poster
If the African-American Little Mermaid also makes you feel surprised, then the modern adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Theater (hereinafter referred to as "Yinsha") in the UK in recent years will probably make you even more confused: Why does "Hamlet" adopt an all-African lineup of actors? Antonio, who was generous in "The Merchant of Venice", seemed to have a friendship-like relationship with Barcelona? How could "Othello" arrange for African-American actors to play Iago? You may be wondering whether the most authoritative Shakespeare troupe in the UK is willing to violate the original text in order to practice Western "political correctness"?
Huangsha uses an all-African cast of "Hamlet"
. Before drawing a conclusion, it is necessary to point out some facts. Huangsha's latest series of adaptations adopt the most cutting-edge scholarly research. Various text signs suggest that Antonio in "The Merchant of Venice" is likely to be a hidden homosexual. Ian Smith, a professor at Lafayette College in the United States, wrote an article pointing out that the handkerchief given to Desdemona by Leo in Othello should be black, not the white we originally assumed to be. These "new discoveries" from the academic community have been brought to the stage. Of course, the Danish royal family in "Hamlet" cannot be African-American, and Iago, who instigated discord in "Othello", should also be a Venetian white man. Why did Huangsha still change this way?
This article takes "Othello" as an example to talk about Shakespeare's drama and the hidden racial issues in the history of Shakespeare's drama adaptation.
1. The "race" issue that has been whitewashed for a long time
The narrator of "Othello" is Iagu. Because General Othello promoted Casio instead of himself, Iago was resentful and began to spread rumors, making Othello think that his newlywed wife Desdemona had an affair with Casio. Iago constantly creates perjury, including asking his wife to hand over Desdemona's lost handkerchief to Casio. Finally, Othello could not withstand this and repeated frame-ups, and strangled his wife to death on the bed with his own hands.
The biggest mystery of this tragedy is Iago's motive, or borrowing the term "motiveless villainy" by the British poet Coleridge . If it was Casio who was only jealous of being promoted, then Iago had completed his revenge on the first night of the army's transition to Cyprus . He got Casio drunk, and the latter, who lost his composure after drinking, was dismissed by Othello. But why did Iago still so obsessed with the idea of completely destroying Othello after this?
In the earlier study of Shakespeare, an answer that was not mentioned was "race". The original English version of "Othello" has a subtitle: "The Moor of Venice". Ayanna Thompson, a professor at Arizona State University in the United States, admitted that if time had gone back thirty years, she told her university teacher that Iago's hatred of Othello contained racial discrimination, and the teacher would have shook his head and said that the "Moor" in Shakespeare does not refer to what we call black or African descent today.
Indeed, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Moors in the European population generally refer to Muslims, especially Spanish or North African Arab or Berber . However, if we go back to the works of Shakespeare , the dark skin of the Moors is very eye-catching. In "The Merchant of Venice", the Moroccan prince traveled a long distance to Belmont and met the rich daughter of the rich man, Portia . The prince's opening remark was: "Don't despise me because of my skin color. I am a neighbor and tribe of the Jiaoyang, and it gave me this dark uniform." In "Anthony and Cleopatra", the Cleopatra was emphasized to have a "brown face".In the first act of "Othello", Brabancio was dissatisfied with his daughter Desdemona secretly marrying Othello, and asked the Duke of Venice to judge. After the Duke heard the testimony of the two newcomers, he advised Brabancio: "If a beautiful person has virtue, he must have virtue. Although your son-in-law is dark, others are beautiful and kind-hearted." Obviously, the most important indicator of the Moors in Shakesaw's play is skin color, and dark skin reflects the prejudice and discrimination of European white people.
Back to Iago in "Othello", his hatred for Othello also flashes with a strong sense of racial hatred. In the first act, in order to incite Brabanci to stop his daughter from marrying Othello, Iagu shouted: "Your heart is broken, your soul has been lost. At this moment, an old black sheep is having sex with your Aries!" The word "sex" in the last line is "tupping" in English. Jeffrey Masten, a professor in the Department of English at Northwestern University, wrote in the latest "Oxford Guide to Shakespeare's Literature" that many authoritative Shakespearean notes in history have embellished the word, and many times, the word is directly interpreted as "copulate with". But in Marston's view, the word has the meaning of ram-like "ram" and suggestive position "covering" (top). In other words, Iago objects women into sexual resources and constructs a relationship between sexual position and power relations, that is, blacks have no right to occupy white women, nor have the right to override (top) the white people. This also implies Iago's anxiety about his identity in the military hierarchy structure, and blacks (Othello) have no right to rule the white masses, including him. At the end of the first scene, Iago's line expressing hatred was not "I hate Othello", but "I hate this Moor."
Just as the Shakesaw drama annotation book has whitewashed these racially meaningful words (Cleopatra's "brown" face has not been annotated for a long time), there is another "whitewashing" for these minority characters in the history of Shakesaw drama performances. During the Renaissance, only white men could perform on stage, wearing wigs, puffing makeup, playing women, and in order to play Moorish characters like Othello, white men would wear black faces and wear exotic costumes.
Century later, it is hard to imagine a real scene on the British stage in the Renaissance, but in Europe and the United States, white actors played minority roles until the 1980s. Orson Welles (Orson Welles), Lawrence Olivier (Laurence Olivier ), Anthony Hopkins (Anthony Hopkins) and other famous veteran actors starred in Othello in the 1951, 1966 and 1981 movies respectively. They all painted their faces dark, covered in thick furs, and wrapped in tight turbans to play the imaginary Moors. In fact, as Chinese, we are not unfamiliar with this treatment in European and American drama and film. Before the 1970s, although a few Asian actors appeared in the Hollywood movie, more Chinese characters were played by white people: Dr. Fu Manchu, the British and American big screen, embodies the image of Westerners' fear of "Yellow Peril". For a long time, they were played by white actors. They had braids and exaggerated mustache, with funny and evil appearances. In the movie of the same name adapted from the novel "Dragon Seed" of Pearl Buck , almost all Chinese peasant characters are played by white men. As a Chinese, I look back at those characters and feel that the characters are like stiff wax figures, because white people play the imagined others, no matter how hard they try - in an era full of apartheid and prejudice, their imagination is a by-product of that era. This is also the problem with white people playing the Moorish role.
1951 movie "Othello", Orson Wells plays Othello
1932 movie "Fu Manchu", Chinese characters are all played by white people
1944 movie "Dragon Seed", Katharine Hepburn (Katharine Hepburn) plays Chinese peasant woman
2. Boycotting the "typical" racial
However, the problem of minority roles is not to let white people give up these characters, everything is solved. Take the Chinese Hollywood movie star Huang Liushuang (Anna May Wong) as an example. She is indeed famous internationally for her role as a Chinese, but these typical and distorted images of "Dragon Girl" or "Madam Butterfly" in the eyes of Westerners are themselves the product of racial discrimination.
"Othello" also has similar problems. When Shakespeare conceived this character, he did not have any life experience of dealing with the Moors, and his imagination also left the cognitive limitations of a white British man during the Elizabeth period. Adrian Lester, an African-American actor who starred in Othello in 2013, admitted that this Shakesaw's play always aroused his anger. Because Othello is the only Moorish man on the stage, he is subconsciously regarded by the audience as a representative of the entire racial group. The drama ended up with his cruel killing of his wife. It seemed that the prejudice of the Venetians against the Moors before came true: black and white intermarriage would not end well, these Moors were barbaric, violent, and jealous. This is why, before the 1980s, even a few African-American actors played Othello, they were not proud of playing the role—they felt more like they became accomplices of racism: their skin color and appearance made the "typical" of the Moorish problematic in the play more believable.
2013 British National Theater Edition of "Othello", with Adrian Lester playing Othello
So, should we boycott Shakespeare today (for example, if you watch "The Merchant of Venetian" from the perspective of Jewish , you will feel that the whole narrative favors Christians and despises the Jewish nation)? Sandra Young, a professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, reminds us to attach importance to the genre characteristics of drama. Drama is not only a line printed on paper, but also an interaction between directors, screenwriters, actors and audiences. How to adapt and present Shakespeare’s plays reflects how we respond to the historical limitations in the text in today’s world.
2013 "Othello" of the National Grand Theater of the UK is a milestone in the history of Shakesaw's performances. Actor Adrian Lester proposed to director Nicholas Hytner: In order to avoid Othello being regarded as a representative of the Moors by the audience, the role of African-American actors on stage must be added. Let me compare the Asian characters in Hollywood movies first. In the classic movie " Fargo" (Fargo) of the Coen brothers 1996, there is a nervous Asian man, Mike Yanagi. He is the heroine's middle school classmate. When he called the heroine to come out for lunch, he would sit next to the heroine who was pregnant with Rocca, and then he said that his wife had just died of cancer. Later we learned that Yanagi had never been married. This scene itself is not a problem, but because Yanagida is the only Asian character in the whole play, in a mainstream American discourse where Asian men are often regarded as "weak and lack of sexual attraction", this character deepens this stereotype . But similar comic characters will not cause such ambiguity in movies all over Asian. In the 1993 movie " Happy Club ", the piano teacher at the opening was actually deaf, but he pretended to be able to teach the piano. When the student failed the performance later, he stood up excitedly and applauded. Because we see various Asian characters in the film, we will not regard this teacher who pretends to be deaf and dumb as a representative of a certain race.
In the all-Asian lineup of the movie "Ji Fu Club", Asians will not be regarded as representatives of ethnicity
After Adrian Lester made a suggestion, there were more African soldiers in the army on the stage.Since then, adding minority roles to prevent a certain character from becoming a "typical" of a certain ethnic group has become a new practice in the drama and film industry today - for example, the latest film of the Coen brothers " The Tragedy of Macbeth " (The Tragedy of Macbeth 13). When they invited African-American actor Denzel Washington to play Macbeth who finally went to murder and dictatorship, they also realized that the role of reorganizing the world, McDev should also be played by African-American actors. However, Leicester's "Othello" has created another question: If we said before that Iago's hatred of Othello is based on racial hatred, will the addition of African characters cover up the nature of this hatred?
2021 movie "The Tragedy of Macbeth", Denzel Washington plays Macbeth
2021 movie "The Tragedy of Macbeth", Cory Hawkins plays Macdev
3. Refusing to simplify complex text
1000 people have a thousand Hamlets in their hearts. Once any work is completed, the author is dead and the reader has the right to interpret the text. Adrian Lester wrote an article for "The Guide to Shakespeare and Race Literature of Cambridge", believing that the theory of "racial hatred" actually simplifies Iagu's heart's more complex and stalemate emotions.
In Leicester's view, the most important theme of "Othello" is "betrayal". "Betrayal" does not refer to the rumors that Desdemona is unfaithful to Othello, but rather that Othello betrayed his subordinate Iago for many years. Casio, promoted by Othello, was a yellow-haired boy with lack of military experience. He was handsome, elegant and likable. But Iago and Othello were born and died for many years. What Iago could never accept was that Othello could betray the friendship of comrades who had been in the army for so many years. It was also the pain caused by treason that triggered Iago's racial prejudice: what the Venetian compatriots were right, the Moors were not trustworthy, they were barbaric and tyrannical, and they should not have such great power at all.
In fact, in the 2013 edition of the British National Theatre, although the proportion of African-American actors in the army was increased, because Othello is still the only African-American character in a high position, the breakdown of comrades-in-arms friendship and the pain of Iago being abandoned by those who believe are placed in the forefront, but it is still relatively hazy. In my opinion, what really visualizes this interpretation is the 2015 version of Huangsha, which is also the first time in history that both Othello and Iago are played by African-American actors.
Iago is played by an African-American actor and is obviously "unfaithful" to the original work, but it causes extraordinary results on the stage. From the perspective of racial research, Othello has another limitation, that is, the story's teller is a white male (Iago). Although this white man is unforgivable, the audience with white as the main body will largely stand on his side to look at Othello, especially if Othello finally believes in the rumors and kills his wife. The audience is likely to completely lose sympathy for Othello and believe that cruelty is his (and even his ethnic group) true character.
When Tanzanian British actor Lucian Msamati comes on stage to play Iago, he subverts the presumptions of race and gender that we were used to. In the first act, when Massa Maitti spoke the discriminatory line ("An old black sheep is having sex with your Aries!"), I felt uncomfortable. But it is this discomfort that inspired my reflection. Why did I think there was no problem for white men to use the same words to defame African Americans and objectify women? It is also this Iago that allows us to see the deep friendship between him and Othello. Not only is the closeness of their ethnic groups deepening this kind of friendship between colleagues, but more importantly, their originally sympathetic military identities. There are two adaptations in this version of
that are amazing. One is Othello's debut, wearing a white shirt, a suit vest, holding an whiskey , followed by a servant carrying a guitar. Othello became a member of the glitzy upper class. It was in this situation that Iago, dressed in military uniform, came to the corner of the stage to tell the audience that he hated Othello and Desdemona's marriage.We can easily get hints: Othello was originally closer to Iago, and he started to fight for his life from the bottom of the army, which was to earn his achievements today. However, after marrying the daughter of the Venetian elder, he changed his whole body and cared more about his exquisite appearance and extravagant enjoyment. It was also because of this that he promoted Casio, who was born in the upper class. We can understand why Iago destroyed the seemingly innocent Desdemona - the culprit of Othello's treason.
Another act adaptation takes place in the middle of the drama. Actor Lester also talked about this issue in his article to "Cambridge Literature Guide". Another big problem of Othello is: How could he believe Iago so quickly and point his finger at his beloved wife? If this part is not well grasped, the audience will easily feel that the main reason for the tragedy is Othello's stupidity or jealousy by nature. Many earlier films reinforce Othello's inner anxiety and mania. Orson Wells uses many shaking empty shots to highlight that Othello is on the verge of mental breakdown. Although this treatment is effective, many versions ignore that Othello is first and foremost an outstanding military leader, not a sentimental literati. Leicester's version always emphasizes Othello's military identity, who is eager to maintain the majesty of the officers, and women often become ornaments or victims under such a system. The 2015 version of Huangsha added a scene: after the army tortured a prisoner of war, Othello tied Iago to an electric chair , wrapped the latter's head with a plastic bag, and ordered the latter to either find evidence of Desdemona's infidelity or swallow the rumors he spread alive. This scene kills two birds with one stone: On the one hand, we witness Othello's character. He is an officer who works hard from the bottom. He has his blood and even violent nature, and is not so easy to deceive! On the other hand, Iago's persistence in evil deeds also had more complicated reasons. Now he has boarded the pirate ship and cannot turn back. He must continue to "verify" the lies he made up before, otherwise his life will be difficult to save.
2015 Royal Sha version of "Othello", Othello, who debuted for the first time, wore a white shirt and a suit and vest, unlike the soldier
2015 Royal Sha version of "Othello", Othello tied Iagu to the electric chair and asked him to find evidence
It is precisely because of these supplements to the logic missing in the original text that Othello and Iagu became flesh-and-blood characters. The background of racial discrimination still exists, but it will not conceal the complexity of human nature. Racial issues invite us to see multiple dimensions of the works and characters.
Stills from the 2004 movie "Venice Businessman"
2019 " Storm " with all-female cast premiered by Huangsha in 2019
If you look at the interpretation of Shari's dramas in recent years from European and American theaters, some seemingly radical adaptations may be to reveal the limitations of the times that the original work has suffered (British director Michael Ryderford 2004 adaptation of the film "The Merchant of Venice" provides the situation of the 16th-century Jews with subtitles: their work, residence and even travel are strictly restricted, and even in Venice, the most enlightened city-state in Europe at that time, they were discriminated against), and some seemingly avant-garde interpretations are to get closer to the most important theme of the work (I think Massa Mati's Iago made me understand the character's "unmotivated evil deeds"). Of course, not all adaptations are related to race. "The Storm" directed by Filida Lloyd (Phyllida Lloyd) premiered in 2019 at Huangsha. "Storm" was moved to a modern women's prison. The original text of Milan's Duke Prospero is actually a prisoner who has been imprisoned for more than 20 years. Even the most dreamy wedding scene in the play, the themes of "slavery" and "capture" have never retired. Each guest holds a balloon, which projectes their dreams in a beautiful new world: luxury cars, big houses, beach vacations. Lloyd responds to her feelings about contemporary life with Shakespeare’s works: we are all captives of material desires.
How does Shakespeare's works perform on issues of race and gender? To this question, I agree with Miles Grier, professor at , , New York City University : “The answer is in our hands."But to hold the answer in your hands, the first thing you need to break is perhaps superstition and loyalty to the author and the original text.
