At drama school we had a module in Pantomime. For non-UK people, it’s basically a campy show set up around Christmas-time. It’s usually a fairytale (I was in Jack & Jill), there’s lots of ‘HE’S RIGHT BEHIND YOU’, songs and general merriment. As part of the module we did school tours, culminating in performing at our own school in front of our classmates, teachers and their kids, if they had any. The cast of my show were watching one of the pantos when a scene came up involving two evil henchmen. One of the henchmen, Sean, was supposed to be comically inept, stumbling over words and such. He did so for a bit, which the kids loved, when all of a sudden it must have gotten too much for the other actor, Felix, because he burst out with ‘OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE SEAN!’. In front of classmates, teachers and kids aged 7 and under. Not only had he broken character, he’d sworn, briefly interrupted the show and embarrassed Sean. People were either silent or laughing in shock, but the show, thankfully, quickly moved on.

For reference, I think Felix said that because Sean had had previous trouble with learning lines, so he may have thought that was what was happening, but it wasn’t, and even if it was, he shouldn’t have burst out with that. We didn’t let him forget it and people bring it up even now, a few years later. He was also a MASSIVE drama queen and really should not have gone to drama school in his fragile emotional state as he repeatedly ran out of classrooms crying, was majorly attention-seeking and easily triggered. I don’t know for sure, but we suspect that little was done about him because the teachers didn’t want to be accused of treating Felix poorly because he was trans.