White People Do Not Know How to Behave at Entertainments Designed for Ladies and Gentlemen of Colour: William Brown's African and African American Theater. By Marvin McAllister. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003; pp. 256. $18.95 paper.

Abstract

An unruly audience, comprising mostly working-class whites, attended a performance of William Shakespeare's Othello by the African Theatre on 10 August 1822. Instead of enjoying a thoughtful interpretation of Shakespeare, the crowd attacked the performers, stripping them of their clothing and dignity. The causes of riots included a growing presence of free blacks in public spaces, political debates surrounding franchise rights of propertied blacks, and the increasing social interactions between black and poor European Americans. The production of Othello was evidence of the African American contribution to evolving notions of national identities, while the Anglo-American's collective mob thinking reflected a consciousness that would become institutionalized by century's end. The riot marked another incident in the slow, painful demise of a theatre company, but the birth of theatre by African Americans.