Steven Berkoff: White actors should be allowed to play Othello

Veteran theatremaker Steven Berkoff has lashed out at the "fiends of political correctness" for making the role of Shakespeare's Othello a "no-go-zone" for white actors.

Responding to a review of the RSC's recent production of Othello, in which a black actor, Lucian Msamati, plays the villainous Iago, Berkoff dismisses the critic's comments – which said "how fortunate we are that actors no longer black-up" to play the title role – as "bilge".

Read Michael Coveney's four-star review of Othello

Berkoff cites seeing Laurence Olivier's portrayal of Othello as "one of the
most exciting performances of my life".

He adds: "I was so lucky I was able to witness this great event before the fiends of political correctness in all their self-righteousness had struck a no-go-zone for white actors on that particular role."

But the 245-word Facebook post hasn't gone down well with all of Berkoff's followers.

Bev Willis commented: "Maybe if you were on the receiving end of racial discrimination you would perhaps realise that actually this is not the time [to bring back blacking up]."

Another, Kevin Allen, responds: "Do you by any chance have some old videos of The Black and White Minstrel Show?"