Lee Mack and Richard Ayoade help put the Bard on trial

Leading British barristers are to appear on a West End stage alongside comics Lee Mack and Richard Ayoade.

They will be taking part in a mock trial to decide Is Shakespeare Funny?, with High Court judge Dame Joanna Smith presiding.

Mack will play actor Will Kemp – the Shakespearean-era clown said to have been the inspiration for Falstaff. The premise is that he has walked out of the Bard’s theatre company, Lord Chamberlain's Men, and is now going to court to prove that he was forced out by having to perform the playwright’s terrible jokes.

Shakespeare’s argument is that Kemp had to go because he indulged in ‘vulgar improv’ rather than sticking to the script.

Ayoade appears as an expert witness, alongside Emma Smith, a Professor of Shakespearean Studies at Oxford University.

Actor Paterson Joseph will play Robin Armin, another member of  Lord Chamberlain's Men, who became the troupe’s comedy lead after Kemp left in around 1600. Historians are uncertain why Kemp really left the company.

The lawyers debating the case will be Dinah Rose – who is president of Magdalen College, Oxford – Andrew Hochhauser, Kate Gallafent and Edward Henry, all of whom are KCs. 

The one-night-only event at the Criterion Theatre on December 8 is a fundraiser for the Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, which runs the world's largest youth drama festival, to mark its 25th anniversary.

Audiences can expect a ‘playful, fast-moving, irreverent night of razor-sharp repartee’, according to organisers.

Tickets are available here, priced £20 to £125.

Published: 12 Nov 2025