A 16th-century Shakespearean tragedy of jealousy, manipulation, and murder that seems to anticipate the history of U.S. race relations? That’s a whole lot of literary drama and social commentary packed into a five-act play.

Aside from all the usual perks of teaching Shakespearean drama in the classroom—the inherent poetry in every play, the skillful plotting and character development, Shakespeare’s experimentation with genre, his self-referential commentary on Elizabethan theater, and his mind blowing insights into human nature (we could go on and on but we won’t)—Othello will give you a chance to explore some pretty tough questions about the relationship between Othello’s status as a black foreigner and his downfall from a noble general to a “savage” killer.