New Old Friends Cast Announcement for Christmas Present & Correct

The Lichfield Garrick have partnered with New Old Friends for another festive farce this Christmas season.

Christmas Present & Correct features all the usual New Old Friends trademarks Garrick audiences have loved since their first show, Crimes Against Christmas, way back in 2016. It stars four actors partaking in multiple-role mayhem, and the eagle-eyed among you may recognise three of the actors from last year’s Studio show, A Christmas Getaway. Kirsty Cox, Rosie Coles and Stuart Tavendale return for more witty wordplay and theatrical set-pieces, and this time around, they’ll also be joined by Mark Collier.

Audiences will be in safe hands as Mark is no stranger to New Old Friends – having had a marvellous time being very silly in their productions of Swiss Family Robinson and Crimes, Camera, Action. He also had a lot of fun (and expended a lot of energy) cycling around the country recently with the HandleBards performing in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing. He has also travelled around the world with various family shows including Monstersaurus and Aliens Love Underpants.

Kirsty is also no stranger to New Old Friends and is delighted to be returning to the Garrick this Christmas. After growing up in Scotland and training at RCS, Kirsty now lives in the Southwest and has worked with numerous theatre companies over the years including Tilted Wig Productions, Bristol Old Vic, Prime Theatre/Bolton Octagon, Kilter Theatre and Blue Brook Productions with whom she toured the one woman show, Stalin’s Daughter. She is also a regular performer with the world-renowned street theatre company, The Naturals, and the comedy improvisation group, Instant Wit.

Rosie has been performing at the Garrick for even longer – this Christmas will be her third time, and she’s very excited to be back again after all the fun she had last year in A Christmas Getaway. Born and bred Brummie Rosie has spent her year travelling around the country in touring productions, so she’s thrilled to be back at her local theatre again for the festive season.

And Stuart, who’s been visiting the Garrick the longest (his first visit was 2018 for Elf & Reindeer’s Christmas Cracker), can’t wait to join us again this Christmas. Prior to this, most recently he appeared in a national tour of The Hound of the Baskervilles as Dr Watson and as George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life. His past credits include The 39 Steps, Netflix’s Luther and the BBC’S Years and Years.

Feargus Wood Dunlop, co-founder of New Old Friends and the show’s producer, says: “We are utterly thrilled to be back at Lichfield with another slice of festive nonsense. We love the Garrick; they offered us our first Christmas show back in 2016, which gave birth to the ‘Crimes…’ series.

We are so excited about this particular show because it blends our love of radio plays with our established style of multi-role madness, but with a little tweak. This farce plays out with four actors playing just four characters, unheard of for us, but of course those characters play many other characters and pretend to be things they are not so don’t worry it’s all still as farcical as usual and we guarantee you a good, solid, evening’s entertainment (or afternoon if you come to a matinee).”

Don’t miss Christmas Present & Correct in the Garrick Studio this Christmas for what promises to be a show full of silliness, secrets, and classic Christmas caper.

The show will be performing at the Lichfield Garrick from Fri 6th December 2024 – Sunday 5th January 2025, with a BSL performance on Thursday 12th December. Tickets are available now from the Lichfield Garrick Box Office (open Monday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm) – you can pop in or call them on 01543 412121, or on www.lichfieldgarrick.com