Listening to this director's interview (2015 Chichester Festival staging of Ross), I joked that they seemed to be talking about Snow White at some point. Now that I'm reading the original script, I do think a case could be made for the famous fairytale as the understructure of Ross. (Spoilers ahead.)
Lawrence: white in both race and clothing. But also, like a princess, he's characterised by purity of intent and goodwill among strangers. His ability to win over the Arabs is rooted in his courage to be vulnerable around them and expose himself to potential betrayal. His whiteness of skin is deconstructed as a metaphor for sexual and personal vulnerability, time and time again.
The Arabs: rough, suspicious, all of a piece, and above all greedy for gold, but also fundamentally simple, unspoiled, and capable of great gratitude and loyalty. A pile of Orientalist stereotypes, but also, isn't this the spitting image of dwarves in fantasy and fairytales?
The Turkish general: the main antagonist is another pile of Orientalist stereotypes, the other kind though: evil and decadent, a pillow-leaning 'old queen' who sends his soldiers out to unveil women and search brothels like ogres with cradles to find out his younger, formidable adversary. Drinking wine, although it's forbidden by the Qur'an, is a stand-in for homosexuality and implies a sort of poisoning that's going to take place. In fact, r*ping Lawrence corrupts his heroic purity. Submitted, body and spirit, he finally drinks the wine of desire/degeneracy/self-knowledge, and seals himself into a metaphorical coffin, a shell of his former self, that is, the titular Ross. (From this sleep, as a WWI veteran and sa victim, but also as a closeted queer man, he will never be kissed back to life).
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