Actor GILES TERERA speaks to Index about the musical that Donald Trump dislikes, and how to protest in challenging times
IN THIS ISSUE, which focuses on Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle democracy, who better to write than one of the actors from Hamilton, which Trump admits he “doesn’t much like”?
Hamilton, which reimagines the US founding fathers’ story using Black actors, opened in London in December 2017, with Giles Terera playing Aaron Burr, a former US vice-president. Famously, Burr and Alexander Hamilton faced off in a duel after years of rivalry. Burr shot Hamilton in the abdomen who died from his injuries. Terera won an Olivier Award for his performance.
This autumn he will play Hamlet at the UK’s Minerva Theatre in Chichester. Directed by Justin Audibert, it is Chichester’s first production of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
INDEX Are advances in equality being reversed by Trump?
GILES TERERA Whenever advancements have been made socially, there is pushback. Freedom, justice, democracy: these things are not definitively achieved – they must be constantly fought for.
I have found myself wondering what’s best to do. My mind kept returning to the story of Moses. The religious implications are not important. He was born and placed in a basket, sent down the Nile and was found and raised by Pharaoh’s daughter. I kept thinking about the person who made the basket.
Giles Terera has wowed audiences with his performances in Hamilton and Othello
CREDIT: Chichester Festival Theatre
This was in a tumultuous period of massive social unrest. The Israelites were being persecuted, hunted and killed. The community would have been desperately trying to survive, resist, find freedom and justice. I could imagine members of the community looking at this basket-maker and saying, “Why aren’t you protesting? Why aren’t you tweeting? Why are you just sitting there making baskets?” And yet that basket was made well enough that the child who was placed in it survived and became one of the most influential agents of social change.
We each have the potential to effect real positive social change. If the basketmaker hadn’t made it with absolute focus and commitment, human history would have been very different. So I say, make your basket, or whatever it may be.
INDEX You recently starred with Index patron Steve Coogan in Dr Strangelove. Did it feel worryingly relevant?
GILES TERERA All good stories are always going to be relevant. Strangelove was and is a great story. To be reminded of how fragile democracy and freedom are is important.
INDEX How does playing Hamlet feel?
GILES TERERA Every audience receives a play differently and freshly. Our task is to tell the story as clearly and honestly as possible. Just as every human being is different, so every actor is different. Therefore, every performance is automatically distinguishable from the next. There is a relevant line from the play: “To thine own self be true. And it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
INDEX What art has inspired you?
GILES TERERA High on the list would be films I have seen. The movies of [Japanese filmmaker Akira] Kurosawa are always entertaining while always being about the society he is living in. I saw Megalopolis recently at which the filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola was present. His objective with the film – to make a story about the decline of an empire and how society can be improved – I found very inspiring.
INDEX If you were thrown into prison and could take only one book with you, what would it be?
GILES TERERA Shakespeare’s Complete Works. All human experience is contained within. His works contain the one thing I would want in a prison – freedom.
INDEX What headline would you most like to see on a newspaper?
GILES TERERA “PEACE”.
Giles Terera will appear in Hamlet at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester from 6 September to 4 October. Tickets from £10 at cft.org.uk or 01243 781312
