“John Kani’s Othello is a fine and masterful performance that should make every white actor think twice before blacking up for the Moor,” wrote The Guardian of this raw and powerful interpretation of the play. The production marked the first time an African actor had been cast in the title role opposite a white Desdemona before a multiracial audience in Johannesburg, South Africa. With Tony Award winner John Kani as Othello, Joanna Weinberg as Desdemona, and a contextual introduction by director Janet Suzman. (187 minutes)

Performed for the first time at the Globe Theatre, Othello is one of Shakespeare’s most exciting, atmospheric, and heartbreaking plays. This is a tale of uncontrollable jealousy, deception, and murder driven by one of theatre’s greatest villains.

Ian McKellen gives an awe-inspiring portrayal of Iago in this unique production of Shakespeare's Othello. McKellen, opera singer Willard White in the title role, and the rest of the cast have all been cited for their sterling performances. Based on the Royal Shakespeare Company's stage performance in Stratford, the film was presented by the BBC. The quality of this production reveals why director Trevor Nunn, the theatre phenomenon whose resume includes Cats and Les Miz, is one of the world's most respected interpreters of Shakespeare. Costumed for the US civil war era, this Othello is set in 19th century Cyprus. A powerful adaptation of theater's most memorable expression of jealousy and doom.