By: Thomas Yan

Shakespeare’s “Richard III” was staged this summer by three of the world’s most prestigious theater companies, each casting its scheming title character differently. Their differences illuminate the fraught debate over which actors should play which roles.

Arthur Hughes, who has radial dysplasia, has a shorter right arm and no thumb. He played Richard for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Earlier this year, Gregory Doran, who was the Royal Shakespeare Company’s artistic director until recently, said actors pretending to be disabled would no longer be acceptable if they played Richard III.

The company said it had cast a disabled actor to play the character, who is described as “deformed” in the opening scene. Colm Feore, who is not disabled, played Richard with a deformed spine but is not hunchback-like at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada. Danai Gurira, a black woman without a disability played the duke in the Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park, a play that features the duke who schemes and kills to become king.

They both took different approaches at a time when cultural norms have been rethought in relation to identity, representation, diversity, artistry, opportunity, and imagination, leading to impassioned debates.

It has been decades since major theaters staged Othello in blackface, and white actors are increasingly rare in theatre and film playing caricatured Asian roles. Currently, opera and ballet are rethinking their depictions of Asian roles as well. Others worry that the current focus on literalism and authenticity can be too constraining, in light of the shift away from old, often stereotyped portrayals. However, supporters of such stereotype merely state acting is the art of pretending to be someone you’re not.