Full Cast Set For Site-Specific Revival of Jim Cartwright's A CHRISTMAS FAIR

Full casting has been announced for the immersive, site-specific revival of Jim Cartwright's festive play, A Christmas Fair, produced by Oldham Coliseum Theatre in association with Not Too Tame. Embracing the period of the current £10m refurbishment of the theatre, the production will be staged in Oldham's Chadderton Town Hall directed by Jimmy Fairhurst (Artistic Director of Not Too Tame) and will run from 17 December – 2 January.

Joining John Henshaw, Samantha Robinson and Dickon Tyrrell in the cast are Kelise Gordon-Harrison and Paddy Stafford. The final two actors were cast following open auditions as part of Not Too Tame's ambition to create professional opportunities for every production.

Young love might be in the air, the vicar's distracted, Veronica is rallying her troops to keep things on track, and the caretaker just wants to go home. Will romance blossom? Will secrets be revealed? Or will the Christmas fair go with a bang…?

First premièred in 2012, renowned playwright Jim Cartwright's A Christmas Fair is a love letter to village life. It tells the hilarious and heart wrenching stories of five characters amidst the buzz, bustle and festive mayhem of setting up the annual fair in the days before Christmas.

Following their sell-out production of Twelfth Night with Les Dennis at Shakespeare North Playhouse which saw 38% new attendees to live theatre, A Christmas Fair will be in Not Too Tame's signature style of energising, popular theatre. Not Too Tame celebrates regional identity and champions community, creating work to attract, entertain and engage new audiences and highlighting that theatre is for all, both as a form of entertainment and as a possible career path.

Jim Cartwright is a multi-award winning, international playwright, screenwriter and director, and his work has been translated into over 35 languages. His plays include Road now considered a modern classic and winner of The George Devine Award, and The Samuel Beckett Award. The Rise and Fall of Little Voice won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy and the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy. Other plays include, Bed, Two, Eight Miles High, Prize Night, Hard Fruit, A Christmas Fair, Mobile Phone Show and Raz. Film and television credits include Road, Vroom, June, Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise, Strumpet, King of the Teds, and the award-winning film Little Voice starring Jane Horrocks and Michael Caine which Cartwright adapted from his play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. As a director, he has worked at The Royal Court Theatre, in the West End, the Royal Exchange Theatre and he directed a national tour of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. On television, he directed Johnny Shakespeare, winner of two Royal Television Society Awards, and King of the Teds starring Brenda Blethyn, Alison Steadman and Sir Tom Jones.

Kelise Gordon-Harrison plays Lucy. Theatre credits include Romeo & Juliet (Liverpool Everyman), Best Mates, Top Bins and Venga Venga (Royal Exchange), Alice in Wonderland (Shakespeare North Playhouse) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Not Too Tame). Television and film credits include Just Act Normal, WACO: British Stories, Gone Clear, Softy and A Long Walk Home.

John Henshaw plays Caretaker. He is perhaps best known as Ken Dixon, the landlord in the BBC sitcom, Early Doors, written by Craig Cash. His theatre credits include Early Doors (The Lowry), King Cotton (The Lowry/Everyman), Beautiful House (Library Theatre) and Road (Bolton Octagon). Work on television includes The Royle Family, Life on Mars, Cutting It, Born and Bred, Nice Guy Eddie, Confessions of a Diary Secretary, New Tricks, Cops, Downton Abbey and Midsomer Murders. His many screen credits include Ken Loach's Looking for Eric (British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor), The Keeper (Beijing International Film Festival Award for Best Supporting Actor) and The Angel's Share.

Samantha Robinson plays Veronica. Theatre credits include Two (New Vic Theatre), Rita, Sue and Bob Too (Out of Joint/Royal Court), The Grand Gesture (Northern Broadsides), Dead, Heavy, Fantastic (Liverpool Everyman), Three Sisters on Hope Street (Hampstead Theatre), The Tempest (Royal Exchange), A Taste of Honey (Oldham Coliseum Theatre/national tour), The Lemon Princess (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Untouchable (Bush Theatre) and Song of the Western Men (Chichester Festival Theatre). Television and film credits include McKenzie, Brassic, Little Boy Blue, Cilla, Casualty, Shameless, Sixty Six and The Island at War.

Paddy Stafford plays Johnny. Theatre credits include Mojo (Redbrick) and Too Much World All At Once (Box of Tricks). Television and film credits include Unforgivable, Doctor Who, Doctors, Ultra, Kiddo and Fairview Park.

Dickon Tyrrell plays Vicar. His stage credits include Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Bartholomew Fair, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, The Oresteia, The Duchess of Malfi, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, King Lear, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet and Anne Boleyn (Shakespeare's Globe), Anatomy of a Suicide (Royal Court), Labour of Love (Headlong/West End), Rutherford and Son (Northern Stage), The Romans in Britain (Sheffield Crucible), The Merchant of Venice and Major Barbara (RSC), Romeo & Juliet, (Northern Broadsides) and The Taming of the Shrew (West Yorkshire Playhouse). Television credits include Going Forward, Law and Order, Coronation Street, Rough Crossings, Aberfan and Peak Practice, and for film, The Isle.