Even though Shakespeare’s manipulated warrior is a Moor cast adrift in Venice’s white society, and even though Akuwudike himself points up how the play’s title role is the greatest for any black actor to aspire to play, he wouldn’t have a problem if a white performer were to take it on.

Colour shouldn’t matter, he says, but it does. As it is, Nigerian-born Akuwudike will step into Othello’s shoes in the forthcoming main-stage production at the Citizens’ Theatre.

“In the past, when blacking-up happened,” Akuwudike points out, “most white actors of great renown tried Othello rather than Iago. But Othello was traditionally seen as the leading actor’s part. Now, with the taboo about white guys playing Othello, Iago is seen as the better part to play.

“But parts should be open for all to play. The wrong that was perceived then was that it was monopolised by white actors, and black actors didn’t get a look in. There were exceptions, like when Paul Robeson played it, but largely it was people like Laurence Olivier playing him. Now, that’s changed.”

Akuwudike points to a production at the Royal Shakespeare Company a few years ago which featured a prominent South African actor as Othello. The posters for the show that lined the London Underground, however, were dominated by the actor playing Iago.

“Maybe,” Akuwudike suggests, “that was because of something as crass as the South African actor not being very well known over here, whereas the actor playing Iago might help sell more tickets to the punters. But something like that does have ramifications for black actors esteem-wise. Having said that, while I recognise it’s kind of wrong, I feel quite detached from it. But I think something is happening in the perception of the play. It’s almost like it should be renamed.”

The casting of Lenny Henry as Othello in a current London production, however, suggests that marketing of star names will win out, whatever the play. This may be why, in a parallel to RSC publicity, the poster for the Citz production focuses on Andrew Clark, who plays Iago. As one of Scotland’s hottest young actors, Clark’s face will be more familiar to Citz audiences than Akuwudike’s. Judging by his approach to the role, one suspects Akuwudike’s Othello is likely to end up just as complex as his nemesis.

“What you get from the text,” Akuwudike says, “is that Othello has had quite a history. He’s had all sorts of misfortunes thrown his way, but through grace or force of will he’s managed to overcome them. Which is why he’s held in such good store in Venice. He’s a soldier and there’s a feeling that there’s nothing he can’t deal with. He’s a man of heart and instinct, and isn’t a guy that the head rules.

“He admits himself there are things he doesn’t know about, so he’s vulnerable to someone like Iago who totally operates with the head. So when he’s forced into that position, he comes a cropper. The play opens with a torrent of racial abuse aimed against him, so Othello is very much an outsider from the start, and there’s this pressure on him to be as good as everyone else.”

Akuwudike moved from Nigeria to London’s east end when he was six years old. The only boy in a family of six sisters, he began acting at secondary school. Encouraged to take up something more secure, he studied architecture at polytechnic in Oxford, where he again fell in with drama societies.

Life felt like an ongoing drama festival, and he ended up being cast in an Oxford University show which visited the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. These were the days of Ken Livingstone’s Greater London Council and community arts centres were thriving. Akuwudike ended up working at the Theatre Royal Stratford East before going to RADA. Following his first job in Botho Strauss’s play, The Park, theatre doors opened quickly for him. Maya Angelou directed him at the Almeida, but his biggest learning curve, he says, came from working with Out Of Joint’s Max Stafford-Clark on two shows.

Growing up, Akuwudike looked to older actors like Norman Beaton and Rudolph Walker for inspiration, and while he doesn’t think his early days were any harder for him than any other young actor, he admits “the ladder seems more possible to climb for young actors, simply because there are more parts written for them”.

In roles for the RSC in The Winter’s Tale, Pericles and Macbeth, race wasn’t an issue. That’s how Akuwudike would like it to be all the time, but he’s pragmatic enough to understand there’s still some way to go before that can be achieved. Playwright Roy Williams wrote recently how his early days as an actor found him cast as stereotypes of rioters and rapists.

“It still goes on,” Akuwudike observes. “There’s an idea as well that black actors will make something cool. But if a part doesn’t interest me enough I won’t go up for it. That’s what’s so good about Othello. There are so many questions to be asked about him, and while I don’t have all the answers, it’s fascinating trying to find out.”

Othello, Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, October 21 – November 14. www.citz.co.uk