About
WHO THE HELL ARE
NOT TOO TAME?
NTT are award-winning, 'great night out' specialists producing high-octane, heart-on-sleeve stories steeped in working-class culture, and made by working-class artists.
"Our work celebrates regional identity, champions community, and feels like a gig. We craft exhilarating nights out across various venue types and highlight to audiences that theatre IS for them, both as entertainment and as a potential career path. At Not Too Tame, we put our audiences at the very heart of what we do."
Jimmy Fairhurst, Artistic Director
For more than a decade, Not Too Tame has been quietly, and sometimes raucously, rewriting the rules of popular theatre. Under the steady hand of UK Theatre Award Nominee Jimmy Fairhurst, the company has averaged 78% of ticket sales across all productions for over 11 years, since their site-specific Edinburgh Fringe sell-out hit Early Doors.
Their midscale, sell-out production of Twelfth Night at Shakespeare North Playhouse saw a staggering 38% of new attendees to live theatre in a venue. Over 11 years of critical and audience acclaim, the company has developed a signature style that is equal parts raw energy, finely tuned craft, and a refusal to put barriers between stage and stalls.
Much of that ethos can be traced to Jimmy Fairhurst, whose initial three years with Cheek By Jowl brought a nuanced understanding of space, a rigorous physicality, and an ensemble discipline to his work. Add the influence of directors like Mike Leigh and Matthew Dunster, and creative friendships with figures such as Trevor Griffiths, and you find a methodology steeped in precision yet bristling with vitality. It is this fusion, exacting artistry rooted in lived experience, that has kept Not Too Tame both relevant and beloved: a company that manages to be populist without ever feeling compromised.
Audience engagement
10%
of A Midsummer Night's Dream audience had never been to the theatre before.
38%
of Twelfth Night audiences had never been to the theatre before.
Putting bums on seats
78%
average ticket yield across 10 years of Not Too Tame shows.
Creating opportunities
Every show
gives professional debut job opportunities, both on and offstage.
Open calls
Audition workshops on every production.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it. 😎
Not Too Tame is an independent theatre company based in Warrington.
Meet the Team
THE PEOPLE BEHIND IT.
In Production
STAGE. STREET. SWEAT.
