Oldham - Culture

Culture

Oldham, though lacking in leisure and cultural amenities, is historically notable for its theatrical culture. Once having a peak of six "fine" theatres in 1908, Oldham is home to the Oldham Coliseum Theatre and the Oldham Theatre Workshop, which have facilitated the early careers of notable actors and writers, including Eric Sykes, Bernard Cribbins and Anne Kirkbride, daughter of acclaimed cartoonist Jack Kirkbride who worked for the Oldham Evening Chronicle. Oldham Coliseum Theatre is one of Britain's last remaining repertory theatres; Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel performed there in the early 20th century, and contemporary actors such as Ralph Fiennes and Minnie Driver, among others, have appeared more recently. In the nineteenth century, the circus was a popular entertainment in Oldham, with Pablo Fanque's circus, a regular visitor to town, filling a 3000-seat amphitheatre on Tommyfield in 1869. Criticised for its lack of a cinema, there are plans to develop an "Oldham West End". Oldham has a thriving bar and night club culture which attracts significant number of young people into the town centre. Oldham's "hard binge drinking culture" has been criticised however for conveying a negative regional image of the town.