This chapter looks at three translations of Othello for the Dutch stage. While the ethnic and racial backgrounds of actors playing Othello have long been an area of scholarly interest, this chapter argues that much more attention needs to be paid to the backgrounds of those who have translated the play. The author demonstrates this by situating Dutch versions of Othello by three translators (Hafid Bouazza, Jibbe Willems and Esther Duysker) in their sociopolitical contexts. The relation between translator and translation and how they mediated the minefield of identity and context was far from straightforward and any further research or debate on translation and translators in Shakespeare studies, which is still very much a tabula rasa, needs to be careful of foregoing the nuances. There are legitimate and necessary questions to be asked about the identity and experience of a translator in relation to specific Shakespeare texts, but always taking into account that reality is more complex than appearances might suggest.