How to see big names sharing stories of acting on RSC’s stage

Some of Britain’s leading actors are taking part in an online series of conversations run by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

David Suchet, Juliet Stevenson and Paterson Joseph are participating in Talking Shakespeare, in which RSC alumni, associate artists and honorary associate artists discuss their experience of performing Shakespeare at the RSC and beyond.

The live, online events series runs weekly on a Monday from 5 pm 6pm and is open to subscribers, members and patrons of the RSC. Events are free to attend but with a suggested donation of £10 per session.

David Suchet will be the guest on Monday September 14. Suchet became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1973 and has performed more than 30 roles for the company including Bolingbroke in Richard II, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Orlando in As You Like It and the title role in Macbeth. He played the Duke of York in the BBC’s The Hollow Crown and is perhaps best known for his role as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.

Paterson Joseph as Brutus in the RSC's 2012 production of Julius Caesar (photo: Kwame Lestrade)Paterson Joseph as Brutus in the RSC's 2012 production of Julius Caesar (photo: Kwame Lestrade)
Paterson Joseph as Brutus in the RSC's 2012 production of Julius Caesar (photo: Kwame Lestrade)

The guest on Monday September 21 is Juliet Stevenson, who joined the RSC after graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and played her debut as Iras in Peter Brook’s Antony & Cleopatra in 1978. She went on to perform in Henry IV, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, Troilus & Cressida and As You Like It. Her most recent Shakespearean role was as Gertrude in Hamlet at the Almeida, and she was nominated for an Emmy in 2019 for Outstanding Narrator in the TV series Queens of Mystery.

Paterson Joseph completes the line-up on September 28. Joseph won second prize in the inaugural Ian Charleson Awards for his work at the RSC in the 1990-91 season as Patroclus in Troilus and Cressida, Oswald in King Lear and the Marquis de Mota in The Last Days of Don Juan. He understudied Simon Russell Beale as the King of Navarre in Terry Hands’ 1990 production of Love’s Labour’s Lost and Ralph Fiennes as Troilus in Sam Mendes’ production of Troilus and Cressida. When Ralph Fiennes left the RSC in August 1991, Paterson played Troilus until the production closed in January 1992. Most recently for the RSC, Paterson played Brutus in Julius Caesar, which played as part of the World Shakespeare Festival in 2012.

Visit www.rsc.org.uk for more information about the series and how to sign up as a subscriber, member or patron.

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