Paapa Essiedu interview: 'We're encouraged to think of racism as something that happens in America'

Absurdity of racism: Paapa Essiedu stars in the Beckett-inspired Pass Over, about two black men in America
Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd

"Fundamentally, it’s a comedy,” explains Paapa Essiedu about Pass Over, the play he’s about to star in at the Kiln Theatre. Given that it’s about two black men trying to rise above racism and not get shot by the police, this is slightly surprising. “You look at the Black Lives Matter movement, or the incidents that came to light internationally as a result of them. Some are so mad, so ridiculous, that if they weren’t so tragic they would be funny. A police officer ripping a school child from their desk and flipping them on to the floor? It’s absurdist. But it’s real life, you know.”

But Antoinette Nwandu’s play is also about “brotherhood, friendship, trust and aspiration”, he says. Riffing on Waiting for Godot and the Exodus story, its UK premiere will be the first time the Kiln will be in-the-round. The play was at the heart of a media storm when it opened in Chicago in 2017, after one white critic’s review suggested violence against black people was “perpetrated within the community itself”, rather than by racist police. Essiedu has not read that review, nor seen Spike Lee’s adaptation for Amazon Prime.

He has a magnetic but disarming quality, darting between intense seriousness (“I can’t speak on behalf of people who write in critical spaces,” he says, slightly loftily, when we discuss potential critical responses to the play), and chilled jokiness — his commute to the Kilburn theatre from his south London home is “a f***ing shlep!” He seems mildly sceptical about our encounter, which doesn’t feel entirely unwarranted; before we meet I read interviews that are framed unconstructively around his race.

Essiedu returns to the stage amid a burgeoning screen career (Kiri, The Miniaturist and Press most prominently), having previously starred in Jamie Lloyd’s Pinter season, Danai Gurira’s The Convert, and as the first black actor to play Hamlet for the RSC. He took the role in Pass Over, to be directed by Kiln boss Indhu Rubasingham , because he wanted to do a political play (he also really loves theatre, and admits to being “a f***ing theatre geek”).

Paapa Essiedu and Gershwyn Eustache Jnr in rehearsals for Pass Over
Marc Brenner

Rehearsals are taking place at a time when the conversation about racism in the UK feels particularly charged; a few weeks ago it focused on Meghan Markle, now it seems to have been taken over by Piers Morgan and Laurence Fox — whom Essiedu immediately shuts down any mention of, saying: “I’m not going to dedicate any of my time to talking or thinking about him.” He does think that the play’s American setting shouldn’t let London audiences off the hook.

“Britain has clearly got a very complicated and not particularly well thought through relationship with its own history and legacy of racism. This play is interesting because it’s set in America. You see policemen shooting black men, which is an image we’re so encouraged to think of as something that happens there, right? The police in America are racist, Americans are racist. But there’s no difference in this country, apart from our policemen don’t walk around carrying guns. So you’re not literally going to often see a black man shot by a policeman. Even though that’s happened. Look at Mark Duggan or the guy at Stockwell Tube,” he adds, referring to Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, shot in 2005 by police who mistook him for a terror suspect.

It’s a universal problem “from the top down”, he tells me. “You’ve got the Prime Minister ... and he’s got a rap sheet as long as this play of historical racist comments.” I wonder how he anticipates the audience will respond, and he talks of the power of storytelling, its ability to make people challenge themselves. “I think you’ve got to be quite courageous to really look at yourself without bias or getting defensive first. This thing about Meghan Markle, or Stormzy saying racism 100 per cent exists, speaks to an idea in this country that’s been perpetrated by the media, that it’s worse to be called racist than it actually is to be a racist.”

Paapa Essiedu at the Kiln Theatre
Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd

On the day we meet, Daniel Kaluuya is reported as saying he is tired of interviewers asking him about race. “I echo and applaud what Daniel is saying,” Essiedu says. He tells me he did an interview the other day where he essentially made the same request. If, for example, I’d rocked up and requested his take on the Baftas diversity row, he adds, “I’d have to ask, ‘Are you asking that question to George MacKay or Anya Taylor-Joy?’ If not... I just think that’s weird!” He laughs. “You can’t say you just happened to see me and wonder if I might be interested in it. We’ve got to see this as an issue that doesn’t just affect the people oppressed by it.”

I ask how it felt to talk to journalists about playing Hamlet, when his race was often the first subject raised. “Yeah, really frustrating. It makes me ask questions about journalists and what is interesting for newspapers. If you’re being interviewed by a white interviewer, it’s coming from a place of intellectual jousting, but for me it’s like, this is who I am. I wake up in the morning and I’m not surprised that I’m black. Especially at that time, I was like 25 when I was playing that part. It was my first major role, and interview after interview [was] like,” he puts on a comical posh voice, “ ‘What does it feel like to be a black person playing Hamlet for the RSC?’ When all I want to do is focus on doing it, which is daunting enough, and also to talk about myself.”

There’s no Hamlet-survivors Whats-App group, but Essiedu has talked to David Tennant about what an all-encompassing experience it is. “After you’ve done it, you don’t wanna think about it again,” he says. I imagine it gave him confidence for life, but he says he still fears each job will be his last. “I’m still constantly certain I’m about to get found out.” I don’t think he needs to worry.

Pass Over runs at the Kiln Theatre, NW6 (020 7328 1000, kilntheatre.com), Feb 13 to Mar 21

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