The Stage

Henry to play activist Robeson in Radio 3 drama

Published Tuesday 11 November 2008 at 15:45 by Matthew Hemley

Exclusive - Lenny Henry is to play American actor and activist Paul Robeson in a BBC drama that charts the performer’s fall from grace.

Called I’m Still the Same Paul, the drama will focus on Robeson’s role as a civil rights campaigner and how his political activism eventually cost him his career.

Robeson, famous for singing Ol’ Man River and for his portrayal of Othello on Broadway from 1943 to 1945, was a noted campaigner against racism in the US during the thirties and forties.

He enjoyed a thriving international career until the US government revoked his passport in 1950 because of his outspokenness.

The 75-minute radio drama is the brainchild of Henry, who is himself to make his theatrical debut playing Othello next year and who became interested in playing Robeson because of the activist’s own connection to the role.

Henry has enlisted writer Annie Caulfield to pen the drama, which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 next year and feature original song recordings from Robeson.

Speaking about the project, Caulfield said that most people know Robeson for singing Ol’ Man River in Show Boat, but are not actually aware of his campaigning.

Caulfield said: “There is so much more to him and the thing that most people don’t know is that he was very political and he sort of ruined his career with his politics. At that time it was just unacceptable and people wanted him to just be quiet and behave.”

She added: “He was this international superstar so we pick him up at the height of his fame and follow his sort of complicated downfall after that.”

Caulfield said Robeson’s story was all the more poignant because of the recent election of Barack Obama as president of the US last week.

“Although it was a sort of terrible downfall Robeson suffered, because of what has happened in America now, it is not a bad ending. What he did was a step on the road,” she said.