I have no objection to "colour blind casting" and i am sure that this will be extolled as a great act of inclusiveness (or some such).
But doesn't this expose one of the great hypocrisies of diversity? It is all right for someone from a minority group to take the part of someone in the majority group but casting the other way round brings forth a storm of outrage. A few days ago I read of anger from some disabled group or other about a part involving some kind of disability was being played by an able-bodied actor.
Surely, the whole point of acting is pretending you are somebody who you are not behaving in a manner which is not how you would normally behave.
No, it doesn't, because they aren't symmetrical situations. As far as disability is concerned, an able-bodied person can easily play a disabled one, but it's much harder, if not impossible, for a disabled actor to play an able-bodied one; therefore, disabled characters should, whenever possible, be played by disabled actors. For ethic minorty actors, there are not many parts in the classics which are specifically for them (Othello, and that's about it), so those parts should as far as possible be played by someone of the appropriate ethnicity (spare us anything like Olivier blacking up to play Othello, please!), and ethic-minority actors should be able to hava a crack at other parts, too, such as a black Hamlet or Dr Faustus. Interestingly, in the early 60s in America, there was an all-black production of 'Othello'. It was transposed to a contemporary American campus: Othello was a black African; all the other characters were lighter-skinned, mixed-race Americans.
Just googled: apparently, it was done again, last year. There have also been race-reversed Othellos.
https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/unicorn-othello-photos-first-look_45742.html
