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On Tuesday night (1 July 2008) Whatsonstage.com was joined by 180 Theatregoers at the Trafalgar Studios for a performance of Neil LaBute’s comedy Fat Pig. Starring Robert Webb, Ella Smith, Kris Marshall and Joanna Page, the play examines the relationship of a succesful city-boy with a plus-sized woman, focussing on issues of identity and notions of conventional beauty.

At the interval, all attendees had the chance to mull over the weighty issues as they enjoyed their complimentary drinks. And after the show, all the cast took part in a lively post-show discussion, chaired by Whatsonstage.com’s own Terri Paddock. Topics covered included the casts’ preconceptions of Neil LaBute, the decision not to set the play in the UK, and a somewhat heated exchange on the subject of accents. Check our news section later today for a transcription of the discussions… (more…)

The large man in the pink turban asked us if we’d heard the one about Julius Caesar and the Smarties. We hadn’t. “Et tu, Brute? Ate three, JC.”

Then a bunch of kids broke out in a knife fight and an ambitious deputy head was told by a crowd of tarty dinner ladies that he would be head teacher hereafter. The greatest was behind, though the man in the pink turban had a fairly big one, too. 

The occasion was an amazing day of celebrating Shakespeare in Schools at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon. And the pink headgear wallah, our compere, was Hardeep Singh Kohli, the Glaswegian Sikh stand-up comedian, television personality and foodie who, it turns out, is a complete Shakespeare nut because of an English teacher he once had at school.

Turns out, too, that Hardeep has known Michelle Gomez, the brilliant Scottish actress playing Kate in The Taming of the Shrew this season, for over twenty years. She was as gobsmacked as the rest of us at some of the stuff we were watching.

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