'If we're going out, we're doing it our way' - line-up for Oldham Coliseum's final show includes Maxine Peake and Christopher Eccleston

The curtains at Oldham Coliseum will fall for a final time this Friday, but ensuring it goes out in style, the theatre has announced a very special closing event featuring an ensemble of famous faces and loyal friends.

Featuring script-in-hand performances by over 20 actors from 11 Coliseum productions, comedians, and some very special guest appearances, Encore marks the final event to take place at the storied Fairbottom Street theatre. The venue is famed as a theatrical training ground that saw the likes of Bernard Cribbins, Roy Barraclough and Minnie Driver tread its boards, along with much of the original cast of Coronation Street.

Despite a passionate campaign to save it, the historic venue will lower its curtains for a final on Friday, March 31. In November, it became the biggest theatre outside of London to lose its £600,000 Arts Council England (ACE) subsidy, in a funding shake-up that sent shockwaves through the arts community.

Read more: “It will echo off the walls when the lights go out”: Oldham Coliseum's powerful last word

Following the loss of its Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) status, and the loss of third of the theatre’s income from 1 April, Oldham Coliseum Theatre announced it would have to close it's doors for good. The Coliseum was one of three regular producing theatres in the Greater Manchester city region, working with over 150,000 individuals per year across its performance, community and participatory activities.

On Friday, the theatre will welcome a string of special guests including Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston and long-term Coliseum campaigner and actress Maxine Peake, who will perform excerpts from Dave John's stage adaptation of 'I, Daniel Blake'. The adaptation