MACBETH CAST ANNOUNCEMENT

Award-winning actor and writer Andrew Sheridan and The Bay star Erin Shanagher will take on the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, joined by Reuben Johnson as Macduff, Darren Kuppen as Malcolm, Dean Boodaghians-Nolan as Banquo and Gurmej Vurk as Duncan. The production also includes Amy Drake, Mary Puzey and Amy Bent as the witches, Sam O’Donnell as Fleance, Fletcher Davies Rushton as Young Siward Martha Ritchie as Ross and Ben Thomas-Harris as Seyton. Amy Bent, Mary, Sam, Fletcher, Martha and Ben have all worked with Oldham Theatre Workshop.

The 19-performance run will be staged inside Liquid & Envy nightclub in Oldham, from Friday 23 October to Saturday 7 November, with press night on Tuesday 27 October.

Macbeth marks the next chapter for Oldham Coliseum Theatre as it continues to programme work across the town while its historic home on Fairbottom Street is restored.

Feared, respected and rewarded for his capacity for violence, Macbeth knows how to play the game. He has spent his life making other men powerful. Now it is his turn.

Nick Bagnall’s radical reimagining relocates Shakespeare’s tragedy to a gritty late-1970s world of gangsters, casinos, and shifting social codes, drawing on the sights, sounds, and atmosphere of Oldham at a time when its clubs, mills, and streets were charged with change.

Staged inside a nightclub, the production puts audiences at the heart of Macbeth’s increasingly fractured world, exploring ambition, masculinity, power and identity through a contemporary Oldham lens. The result is a Macbeth that feels closer to a night out than a night at the theatre, while retaining the force, poetry and darkness of Shakespeare’s original.

For Nick Bagnall, Creative Director of Oldham Coliseum Theatre, bringing together actors with strong North West connections is central to the production.

Nick said: “Casting this production has been an extraordinary process because I wanted to create a cast that could really inhabit this world together. We have some hugely experienced actors alongside brilliant emerging talent, and a strong North West identity runs through it all.

“Andrew and Erin bring an extraordinary intensity to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, while Reuben, Dean, Gurmej and the rest of the company bring their own histories, energies and perspectives to the world we are creating. That feels particularly important for a production rooted so deeply in Oldham. I want audiences to recognise something of their own town, its people and its history, while being taken somewhere they absolutely don’t expect.”

Lead Producer Justine Potter said: “We were looking for a cast who could bring Shakespeare’s language to life in a way that felt immediate, truthful and connected to the world Nick has created. It was particularly exciting to find such a strong mix of established actors with deep North West connections and emerging local talent.

“It feels like a very special group of actors for this production, and I’m excited to see what they create together in the unique setting of Liquid & Envy.”

Access is built into the run, with the two-week season including a relaxed performance, an audio-described performance, a captioned performance and two performances interpreted in British Sign Language.

Click here to book your tickets!

Meet the cast

Andrew Sheridan – Macbeth

Andrew Sheridan is an award-winning actor and writer whose screen credits include Industry, The Couple Next Door, Chernobyl, Peaky Blinders and the Joy Division biopic Control. His theatre credits include A Taste of Honey at Manchester’s Royal Exchange, People, Places and Things and Nuclear War at the Royal Court. His debut play, Winterlong, won the Bruntwood Prize.

Reuben Johnson – Macduff

Reuben Johnson’s theatre credits include Bacchae and Macbeth for the National Theatre, The Government Inspector at Chichester Festival Theatre, Twelfth Night at Shakespeare North Playhouse, and A Streetcar Named Desire at Manchester’s Royal Exchange. Screen credits include The Teacher, Doctor Who, Prisoners’ Wives, Cobra and The City & The City.

Darren Kuppen – Malcolm

Darren Kuppen began acting at Oldham Theatre Workshop, making his first production with Oldham Coliseum Theatre. His theatre work includes Going Out Out at HOME Manchester, Mahabharata at the Barbican, Let the Right One In at Manchester’s Royal Exchange, East Is East at Trafalgar Studios, Road at Leeds Playhouse and The Tempest at Shakespeare’s Globe. Screen credits include Dodger, Spooks, Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

Dean Boodaghians-Nolan – Banquo

Dean Boodaghians-Nolan has worked across theatre, film, television and radio. His theatre work includes The Wind in the Willows at Shakespeare North Playhouse and productions with Shakespeare’s Globe, Kneehigh and Liverpool Everyman. Screen credits include House of the Dragon, Testament, Supergirl and Disney’s Snow White.

Gurmej Virk – Duncan

Gurmej Virk recently played King Hamlet in Hamlet: The Rest is Silence, a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham. He is particularly interested in exploring Shakespeare’s relevance to contemporary audiences.

Amy Drake – First Witch / Porter / Lady Macduff / Murderer 1

Amy Drake trained at ALRA North and has worked at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Octagon Bolton, Hull Truck, Derby Theatre and Theatr Clwyd. Her television credits include Brassic, Malpractice and Alma’s Not Normal.

Mary Puzey – Witch 2 / Murderer 3

Mary Puzey is an actor-musician and East 15 World Performance graduate. Recent work includes Iris at Golden Goose Theatre, for which she composed and performed the live score, Impact at Camden’s Etcetera Theatre and Your Mum at Camden Fringe. She is also part of Oldham Theatre Workshop’s street theatre company.

Amy Bent – Witch 3 / Murderer 2

Amy Bent is a Manchester-based actor making her professional stage debut in Macbeth. She trained with Oldham Theatre Workshop and has appeared in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Little Shop of Horrors and Strike.

Sam O’Donnell – Fleance / Ensemble

Oldham-based actor Sam O’Donnell studied at UCLan Preston and has worked with Oldham Theatre Workshop and Dare to Know Theatre. Macbeth marks his first Shakespeare production.

Fletcher Davies Rushton – Macduff’s Son / Young Siward / Ensemble

Fletcher Davies Rushton is an actor, technician and facilitator from Rochdale. He has worked with Oldham Theatre Workshop for more than four years and has appeared in Animal Farm, Don’t Turn My Life Into a Musical and Sellouts! Thank You For Visiting.

Martha Ritchie – Ross / Ensemble

Martha Ritchie is an actor and creative who devises work combining movement, music and spoken word. She has worked with Oldham Theatre Workshop and the National Youth Theatre and is Lead Creative at youth-led arts organisation Between Earth and Voice.

Ben Thomas-Harris – Seyton / Siward / Ensemble

Ben Thomas-Harris is an emerging performer and theatre-maker. He recently appeared in Sweaty Clowns at the Edinburgh Fringe and has worked with Airborne Theatre and Oldham Theatre Workshop. He recently completed Theatre and Performance training at the University of Leeds.

Press contacts

For press enquiries and interview requests in relation to Macbeth, please contact:

Alison Bell, Red Alert PR, Comms & Events
alison@redalertpr.com | 07818 256 434

Liam Walsh, Red Alert PR, Comms & Events
liam@redalertpr.com | 07976 258 577