Steve Pratt talks to academic Tom Shakespeare about baring his soul as an actor in his forthcoming play.

Tom Shakespeare jokes that he was only asked to take part in a new writing programme at Newcastle's Live Theatre because of his name.

Certainly, it's probably the first time that the Royal Shakespeare Company has had a real Shakespeare featured in its annual North-East season.

Next week the academic turns actor to perform one of three Testimonies, dramatised monologues being presented as part of a new writing season.

His "proper" job is as director of Outreach for the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Institute (PEALS), a Newcastle-based project developing research and debate on the social and ethical implications of the new genetics.

In No Small Inheritance, he will be looking at how much choice we have in what we inherit from our parents and what we pass on to our children.

Shakespeare, who has a genetic condition called achondropiasis that causes restrictive growth, was invited to take part in Testimonies by Live's artistic director Max Roberts. "He asked if I was interested in making a piece of theatre, which I've never done before. It's exciting and scary," he says.

"Basically, it's based on some writing I've been doing for the past year or so. After they said yes to my idea and it was a matter of spending a few months carving out a script that works.

"I have written academic books before, although obviously this is so different. You are going to show people and move them as well as winning them over intellectually."

He's used to public speaking and giving lectures, and has done stand-up comedy, but the prospect of performing an hour-long monologue is completely different. For starters, he has to learn the 8,000-word script by heart.

People have asked him if he'll be acting. "I'm playing myself but also playing my father, my grandmother, my mother and various doctors - so yes, there's acting," he says.

"The piece has lots of different characters and different tones. My day job is research about science and genetics, which are in the piece. It raises questions whether you should have children, what difference does it make to their lives, and there's a thing about family and genealogy."

He has friends who are actors but working on Testimonies has increased his respect for the acting profession "because it's bloody hard work".

Testimonies is part of a season of new work presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Live Theatre next mpnth.. "I'm really pleased they've got a diversity of people doing the pieces. It's about ordinary people telling interesting stories about their lives," says Shakespeare.

If successful, he'd like to do more theatre in the future. "I have written in the past and I would like to develop that side of my work," he adds.

* No Small Inheritance by Tom Shakespeare is performed at Live Theatre, Newcastle, on November 3 at 9.30pm and November 20 at 4pm. Other monologues in the Testimonies series feature Sid Hayat (November 4 at 9.30pm and November 28 at 8pm) and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (November 5 at 9.30pm).

Viv Hardwick is on holiday this week

Published: 30/10/2004