Word: othello
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...display of cultural interest in things Shakespearian was overpowering. Bill Powell, Bob Zehrung, Dick Rowles, Ralph Rolling, and Bob Ronshoim were on hand at the Shubert early to see "Othello." Bob Ronshoim took time out from his interests in the racial question to review his controversial play. In the light of this experience, Bob has decided that Moors are a special case and it in no way affects his arguments...
Produced with skill, staged with originality, and played with a rare combination of power and understanding, the Theatre Guild's current production of Shakespeare's "Othello" must go down on every theatre goer's list as a masterpiece of writing, directing, and acting...
Dominating figure on the stage is Paul Robeson, taking the lead part of Othello. The rolling bass of Robeson's voice, become famous by his years as a concert singer, draws the attention of the theatre like a magnet whenever the Moor speaks forth in his deep and melancholy tones. The giant Negro acts the part of the brave but not too intelligent warrior with exceptional understanding, giving it a depth which several of the lesser but more sparkling parts lack...
Jose Ferrer, playing the wily villain of the play, Iago, threatens at various moments to steal the show from Robeson. He portrays with evil genius the wicked shrewdness and the twisted mind that produces the tragedy of "Othello" by mastering the simple strength of the Moor. By a crook of the finger, a clearing of the throat, a lift of the eyebrow, Ferrer probes the depths of the villain's complicated character more thoroughly than could a less capable actor by an entire speech...
...than infancy and rickets." At 79, Michelangelo began to write sonnets; at 73, Galileo published his discoveries on the revolutions of the moon; at 82, Goethe finished Faust; at 88, John Wesley preached every day; at 78, Franklin became U.S. Ambassador to France; after 70, Verdi composed his great Othello and Falstaff; after 70, Cornelius Vanderbilt made more than $100,000,000. "After the critical age between 50 and 60 has been passed," observes Dr. Gumpert, "there often seems to be a new flowering of gifts and talents, colored by all the splendor of the setting...