Othello was probably first performed soon after King James VI of Scotland acceded to the English throne in 1603. James' accession meant a change in status for the Chamberlain's Men, who now became the King's Men, thereby acknowledged as the premier acting company in the country. Shakespeare's company performed on all the notable dates of the Christmas season 1603, by contrast with the previous year, when the dates were shared out fairly evenly between the companies. Othello was performed at court, at the Whitehall Banqueting House, on 1 November 1604. Like most of Shakespeare's plays, however, it was also performed in the public theatre in London and probably taken on tour. An eyewitness account of a performance at Oxford University in 1610 survives, giving us a brief and fascinating window into one contemporary response to the play.

Clearly pity, classified by Aristotle, with fear, as one of the two emotions that tragedy should evoke (p. 2 above), is a central part of this spectator's response, and it is the actor's face, not the grander spectacle suggested by the surviving sketch and contemporary response to Titus Andronicus, that is indicated as prompting that response. A boy-actor here immerses a spectator in the role he plays, as opposed to impressing him with an awareness of the play as a performance.