Casting codswallop
Sir – Chris Gray (Gray Matter, June 25) should be informed that his comments about casting Othello are four centuries out of date.
Richard Burbage, Shakespeare’s original Othello, was a white man in blackface.
Besides, why is it that people make these complaints about black characters? Should kings and queens only be played by real royalty? Are Falconbridge and Edmund to be reserved for real bastards?
The whole thing is a load of codswallop.
Ralph Leavis
Oxford
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