Reece Shearsmith, Hugh Skinner and Josh Finan are the newest guest actors for An Oak Tree at The Other Palace, each taking a single performance opposite Tim Crouch without ever having seen the script.
Josh Finan goes first of the three, taking the matinee on 17 October, with Hugh Skinner following on 4 November and Reece Shearsmith on 6 November. All three are joining An Oak Tree, which opens at The Other Palace on 7 October and stays until 15 November 2026 in a production from Francesca Moody Productions.
The deal is the same for everyone on the list. Tim Crouch plays opposite a different actor at each performance, and that actor arrives on stage having neither read nor rehearsed the play. Since its 2005 premiere it has been staged in more than 19 countries, with upwards of 350 performers taking the guest role.
Shearsmith co-created and starred in The League of Gentlemen, then went on to make the BAFTA-winning Inside No. 9 with his writing partner Steve Pemberton. On stage he earned an Olivier nomination for A Very Expensive Poison at the Old Vic, and his West End credits include The Unfriend at the Criterion Theatre.
Skinner is best known on television as Will Humphries, the intern in W1A, and as Harry, the long-suffering boyfriend in Fleabag, a show that began life as a Francesca Moody Productions stage piece. On screen he also played the younger version of Colin Firth’s character in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, and his most recent theatre role was in The Importance of Being Earnest at the National Theatre.
Finan, a BAFTA nominee for The Responder on BBC One, played Gerry Adams in FX’s Say Nothing. His theatre work includes The Southbury Child at the Bridge Theatre and Peggy For You at Hampstead Theatre.
The three join a guest list that already takes in Hammed Animashaun, Bessie Carter, Rosalie Craig, Sacha Dhawan, Dónal Finn, George Fouracres, Sean Gilder, Brian Gleeson, Suranne Jones, Sophie Melville, Tom Mothersdale, Clare Perkins, Tanya Reynolds, Juliet Stevenson, Rhashan Stone, Gemma Whelan, Olivia Williams and Ria Zmitrowicz. The previous batch of names, announced earlier this week, added Finn, Jones and Reynolds.
Crouch directs the play with Karl James and Andy Smith. An Oak Tree is the first of three shows in the Francesca Moody Productions season at The Other Palace, followed by Garry Starr: Classic Penguins from 22 October and Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen from 19 November. Across the whole season, 20 seats at every performance are held back at £20.
Tickets for An Oak Tree are on sale now, with press night on 7 October 2026, the opening performance.
