SHAPPI KHORSANDI | INTERVIEW
“This show isn’t a history lesson… it’s vengeance!” declares comedian Shappi Khorsande of her lastest touring show, Mistress and Misfit.
Since using the tale of her own family fleeing Iran for the UK, and her experience of growing up in London, as the basis of her 2006 show – a story later adapted for her book A Beginner’s Guide To Acting English – Shappi has proved to be one of the country’s most consistent comedians, whether it’s discussing her relationship with an anonymous faded ’90s rocker, or performing while eight months pregnant.
Mistress And Misfit finds Shappi exploring the life of one of history’s most misunderstood characters, Lady Emma Hamilton, with whom she feels a personal connection. “I feel very connected with women in history who have such a tough time,” Shappi says. “I compare Emma to me as a single mum. She had a baby at 16 who was rejected by the father – she meets a man who said he wanted to be with her but that ‘the baby has to go.’ Heart-breaking! I compare that to myself having a baby and the father rejecting the child …”
Lady Hamilton wasn’t always a Lady. The daughter of a Welsh blacksmith, she worked as a maid before reportedly entertaining at stag dos. A rare beauty (the famed painter George Romney depicted her dozens of times), affairs with upper-class married gents followed, as did a teenage pregnancy, before marriage to the elderly Sir William Hamilton. But it was her relationship with none other than Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson which really set tongues wagging. Nelson left his wife for Emma, and the two attracted huge crowds whenever they appeared in public.
“She’s such a fascinating character, a glorious, gorgeous woman when women had no agency, when they lived a back-breaking life and died at 45,” Shappi says. “She was such a creative person, a dancer, a famous model. She’s fascinating … as someone from a certain era, from 200 years ago, she’s no different from so many women today. But the culture and laws of the time meant that she lived a very different life from someone today.”
Indeed she did. Despite what many believe, when Nelson was struck down at the Battle Of Trafalgar in 1805, his dying thoughts were of Emma and their daughter, Horatia.
“We’re led to believe that Nelson’s last words where ‘Thank God I have done my duty’. But the doctor who was with him when he died said that his last words were about Lady Hamilton and Horatia. There he was, on the lower deck [of warship HMS Victory], surrounded by corpses and what was he thinking about? His duty? Or his loved ones?”
Nelson hoped his mistress and child would be cared for by the British government, but they turned their back on her. With her fortune soon depleted, she ended up in prison before fleeing creditors and dying penniless in Calais, in 1815, aged 49.
“Because of her [low] social class, she was rejected,” Shappi explains, adding “[Nelson] truly truly loved her. It’s such a tragic story! Some historians today still refuse to acknowledge her impact.”
Alongside Mistress And Misfit, Shappi is working on a stage version of her 2016 teen novel, Nina Is Not OK, funded by her troubled, traumatic and brief stint on I’m A Celebrity… back in November 2017.
“I was completely petrified!” she cries, though recognises the benefits of such an appearance, including a holiday for her kids and the decent fee. “The money I got doing it now means that I can now afford to write a play. I’m not doing Edinburgh this year so I’m hoping we can do it in the summer, while everyone’s in Edinburgh. I’m talking to theatres now, so watch this space. I’d love to tour it – that would be amazing!”
Mistress and Misfit – Shappi Khorsandi. The Glee Club, Cardiff, Thurs 29 Mar 2018. Tickets: £15 Info: www.glee.co.uk