Paterson Joseph: Julius Caesar and Me (Rebroadcast)

<p>This summer marks the tenth anniversary of a landmark production for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Their 2012 <em>Julius Caesar</em> was Britain’s first ever high-profile production of a Shakespeare play with an all-Black cast—a milestone that came 76 years after it was first done in the US and 15 years after it was first done in Canada.</p> <p>The production featured Paterson Joseph as Brutus, and he was so impressed by the experience that he wrote <em>Julius Caesar and Me: Exploring Shakespeare’s African Play</em>. The book takes an unflinching look at Joseph’s time at the RSC, both while working on <em>Caesar</em> and in the 1990s, when the son of St. Lucian parents found himself one of only four Black people in the building. He also writes about his early work, performing sharp and boldly reimagined Shakespeare with the Cheek by Jowl company; his thoughts about race in the British theater; the proper way to play Brutus; Received Pronunciation, and much more.</p> <p>In 2018, Joseph was at the National Black Theater in Harlem, performing his one-man show, <em>Sancho: An Act of Remembrance</em>, about the first Black man in England to cast a vote. We invited him into the studio to talk about the book, Brutus, and more, and we bring that conversation to you again now. Paterson Joseph is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev.</p> <p>Paterson Joseph is an acclaimed British actor who has performed major roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, including the title role in <em>Othello</em> and the leads in <em>The Royal Hunt of the Sun</em> and <em>The Emperor Jones</em>. He has also worked extensively in film, and in television, including recently <em>The Leftovers</em> and <em>Timeless</em>. In 2015, he wrote and performed his one-man play <em>Sancho: An Act of Remembrance</em> on tour.</p> <p><em>Julius Caesar and Me: Exploring Shakespeare’s African Play </em>was published in the US by Methuen Drama, a division of Bloomsbury Books, in 2018.</p> <p>From the <em>Shakespeare Unlimited</em> podcas