Twenty+curtain+calls

Reviews of Robeson in Othello
"The Daily News's EA Baughan felt that Robeson's "dignity is more the effect of his massive frame than the expression of a big and noble soul", while Agate, who thought every Othello had to possess a "fine physique", wrote: "In the physical aspect Mr Robeson largely failed. Though in the mere matter of inches he towered above everybody else, it was a tower which cringed. He walked with a stoop, his body sagged, his hands appeared to hang below his knees." He put it down to "the inferiority complex", but his criticisms also stemmed from his central point that "there is no more reason to choose a negro to play Othello than to requisition a fat man for Falstaff"" (Ellis).
 * Negative**

"Writing in the Daily Telegraph, WA Darlington felt that Robeson was a "really memorable" Othello precisely because he was black: "By reason of his race Mr Robeson is able to surmount the difficulties which English actors generally find in the part." While other Othellos had seemed illogically jealous, Robeson's jealousy seemed real...It was a "fine" performance..." (Ellis)
 * Positive**

"Only the Express's critic seemed to think the casting of a black actor was a historic event...his review, subtitled "Coloured Audience in the Stalls", concluded that Robeson had "triumphed as a negro Moor, black, swarthy, muscular, a real man of deep colour"." (Ellis)
 * Historic**