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Page 68 the racial boundaries intrinsic to colonial power relations at the height of the Victorian empire. We examine these issues of cultural surveillance and resistance in the context of a theatrical “incident” in colonial Calcutta, 1848, when the racially segregated English theater, the Sans Souci, decided to present Shakespeare’s Othello, the Moor of Venice, with the part of Othello being played by a “Native Gentleman,” a Bengali called Bustomchurn Addy (Baișñab Caran Āḍhya). Hitherto, all non-white characters in English plays had been played by white actors on the British stage of Calcutta. Addy’s appearance as Othello happened a few years after the African American actor, Ira Aldridge (d. 1867), had played the Moor in Philadelphia. Aldridge then launched a career as an actor spanning four decades in England and Europe, never to return to America. He played not only Othello, but also other Shakespearean roles, including: King Lear, Shylock, Richard III, Macbeth, and Aaron in Titus Andronicus; Zanga in The Revenge by Edward Young (see below); and Mango in Padlock, a comic opera by Isaac Bickerstaff (1735–1812). He owned a home in London and was buried in Lódź, Poland. A statue of Ira Aldridge by Pietro Calvi was erected at the Chicago Public Library in 1954. Aldridge, a great exception to the rule, had crossed the racial divide. But, unlike that of the celebrated African American thespian, Addy’s crossing never launched a flourishing career and was fraught with numerous controversies and ambiguities. In fact, the first performance of his Othello at the Sans Souci was canceled under instructions from high-ranking army officials of the British East India Company. It was only through the efforts of the civilian theater owner, James Barry, responding to the demands of a curious audience, that the production finally had two short runs. English reviews of these few performances of Addy’s Othello were mixed at best, revealing the rulers’ pervasive anxieties about race-mixing, despite their interest in mimetic realism. Doubts were expressed about the Native actor’s ability to master the sacrosanct Shakespearean language, and a curious silence was maintained about a Native Indian actor’s physical proximity to a white Desdemona, Mrs. Anderson, on the stage. In exploring this incident, we argue that the racial politics implicit in the English responses to this production must be seen in a broader context of other representations of “Moors” on the colonial Calcutta stage. In exploring the representational practices that enabled this unusual event to take place, we also recognize the complex relation between the interest |
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