Original Theatre, Joshua Beaumont and Huw Allen, in association with Wiltshire Creative, are delighted to announce the full cast for The Croft, a gripping thriller by Ali Milles.

Based on a true Highland story, the play follows two women whose weekend getaway in a remote village takes an unsettling turn. Starring Liza Goddard (Noises Off, Doctor Who, Bergerac) as Enid, Caroline Harker (A Touch of Frost, Steel Magnolias, The Railway Children) as Suzanne, and Gray O’Brien (Coronation Street, Casualty, Rebus: A Game Called Malice) as David. They’ll be joined by Gracie Follows (Birdsong) as Laura, Russell Layton (Art) as Ronald, Simon Roberts (Witness for the Prosecution) as Tom, with Judith Rae (The Mousetrap) as an understudy.

Directed by Alastair Whatley with associate director Nadia Papachronopoulou and original direction by Philip Franks, the production features design by Adrian Linford, lighting by Chris Davey, and sound by Max Pappenheim.

The tour opens at Salisbury Playhouse from 9 to 17 May before embarking on an 8 week tour across the UK.

Join us for a haunting mystery that will stay with you well after you've left the theatre.

Liza Goddard

Most recently Liza has appeared in Casualty and starred in the national tours of NoisesOff and A Passionate Woman. Liza's many stage appearances include the national tours of Relitively Speaking opposite Robert Powell, The Smallest Show On Earth, Black Coffee, Go Back For Murder, Dry Rot and Star Quality.

Prior to this Liza appeared in Communicating Doors, Seasons Greetings, If I Were You, Snake In The Grass, Life And Beth, Life Of Reily, all directed by Alan Ayckbourn. Liza played Lady Bracknell in The Importance Of Being Earnest. She then went on to play Mrs Erlynne in the UK tour of Lady Windermere's Fan and has now completed the hatrick by appearing as Mrs Cheveley in Bill Kenwright's production of An Ideal Husband. Liza also
starred in The Grass Is Greener, Murder By Misadventure and Single Spies opposite Robert Powell, followed by Edge Of Darkness, The Constant Wife and She Stoops To Conquer. Further stage appearances include Mansfield Park at Chichester Festival Theatre, Arms And The Man, The Importance Of Being Earnest, Who's On The Menu Tonight, The Case Of The Oily Levantine, Let's Do It Your
Way, The Flip Side, Blithe Spirit, The Signs Of The Times with Kenneth Moore at the Vaudeville, No Sex Please We're British at the Strand Theatre, The Hard Shoulder at the Aldwych, See How They Run at the Shaftesbury, Wife Begins AtForty at the Ambassadors and a play written for her by NC Hunter, One Fair Daughter.

Liza made her first major impact on the small screen Clancy in Skippy BushKangaroo, then as Victoria in Take Three Girls. A sequel to this award-winning series was made in 1982, entitled Take Three Women. After this she starred in Holding On and The Upchat Line before being asked to play the part of April in the hugely popular series The Brothers. Other television appearances include Casualty, Wild West, Grandpa In My Pockrt, Midsommer Murders, Zip And Hollow, Yes, Honestly, Wodehouse Playhouse, Queen Of A Distant Country, Murder, At The Wedding, Brendon Chase, Pig In The Middle (three series), Roll Over Beethoven (two series), Seal Morning, Tales Of The Unexpected, Just His Luck, Phillippa Vale in Bergerac, Mrs Jessop in Woof
Liza also co-starred with Ben Kingsley in Shostakovitch and with Richard Burton in Wagner.

Gray O'Brien

Gray is probably best known for his role as the Tony Gordon in Coronation Street. He co-starred in the Doctor Who Christmas special Voyage Of The Damned as Rickston Slade opposite guest star Kylie Minogue and David Tennant's Doctor.  In PeakPractice he played the series regular character of Dr Tom Deneley for ITV and prior to that he was series regular; Richard McCaig in Casualty for the BBC. Other television work includes: Shakespeare & Hathaway, The Loch, Titanic - Blood And Steel, Bad Boys, Cruise For The Gods, Taggart and Mac. 

Film credits include the British feature The Wasting directed by Carolyn Saunders and The Daniel Connection directed by Stewart Menelaws. 

His most recent stage work includes: Rebus: A Game Called Malice as Rebus,  Twelve Angry Men as Juror No 10, Educating Rita at Perth Theatre, Inspector Levine in the classic Broadway thriller Catch Me If You Can alongside Dallas legend Patrick Duffy, Inspector Tanner in The Case Of The Frightened Lady, Captain Von Trapp in the The Sound Of Music, Detective Roy Grace in Dead Simple and Don in The Perfect Murder. Previously Gray played the role of Milo Tindle opposite Peter Bowles in Sleuth at The Apollo Theatre directed by Elijah Moshinsky. 

Caroline Harker

Training: Central School of Speech and Drama

Stage Credits: The Children (Nottingham Playhouse);Steel Magnolias (UK Tour); Relatively Speaking and Breaking the Code (Salisbury Playhouse); Handbagged (Salisbury Theatre), The Sweet Science of Bruising (Southwark Playhouse), The Chalk Garden (Chichester Festival Theatre), Sean Hughes’ Blank Book (Soho Theatre), The Railway Children (Kings Cross Theatre and Waterloo Station), Brideshead Revisited (English Touring Theatre), Blithe Spirit (York Theatre Royal), Pride and Prejudice (Regents Park Theatre), The Village Bike (Sheffield Crucible), Tusk Tusk, The Strip, The Editing Process (all at the Royal Court Theatre), All Mouth (Menier Chocolate Factory), Entertaining Angels (Chichester Festival Theatre), Present Laughter (Bath Theatre Royal), Battle Royal (National Theatre), Falling (Hampstead Theatre), Things We Do For Love (Duchess Theatre), The Mongrel’s Heart (Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh), Hidden Laughter (Vaudeville Theatre) and Sweet Charity, Daisy Pulls it Off, Don Juan (all at Harrogate Repertory Theatre).

Television Credits: Emmerdale; The Agency; Say Nothing; Joan; The Chemistry of Deat;, Slow Horse;, Doctors; Coronation Street; Holby City; New Tricks; The Commande;, Head Cases; Margaret; Murder in Suburbia; Foyle’s Way; Auf Weidersehen Pe;, Hans Christian Anderson;, I Saw You; Armadill; Keeping Mum; 6 series of A Touch of Frost; Kavanagh QC; Casualty; A Dance To The Music of Time; Holding On; Moll Flanders; Harry Enfield & Chums; Honey For Tea; Middlemarch; Covington Cross; Riders; Growing Rich and Chancer.

Film credits: Mothering Sunday; Lady Godiva: Back In The Saddle; A Woman Of The North and The Madness of King George.

Gracie Follows

Gracie trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Theatre includes: Birdsong (UK tour), Love Never Dies in concert (Theatre Royal Drury Lane).

Russell Layton

Russell trained at Webber Douglas Academy.

Theatre credits include: Jekyll and Hyde (Royal National Theatre), Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe), Art (Original Theatre Company), Henry IV, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, You See the Thing Is (RSC), Pygmalion (UK Tour), Great Expectations (Watermill Theatre), Hurricane Michael (Assembly Edinburgh), Goosebumps (The Vaults), Kolbe’s Gift (Leicester Square Theatre), Wings of Desire (Birmingham International Dance Festival), The Picture (Salisbury Playhouse Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Stafford Open Air Theatre), Katherine Desouza (Birmingham Rep), A Chaste Maid of Cheapside (Almeida Theatre), Blue Remembered Hills (New Vic Theatre Stoke), The Messiah, Salome, Coriolanus (East Productions), The Tempest (A&BC Theatre Company), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Attic Theatre), Of Mice and Men (Southwark Playhouse), Bedroom Farce (Frankfurt English Theatre), Jewess of Toledo (Bridewell Theatre) and The Crucible (West Yorkshire Playhouse).

Screen credits include: Father Brown, Casualty, Eastenders, Doctors, Holby City and Inventions of the World (BBC), Kingdom (ITV), Comedy Lab/Clitheroe (Channel 4).

Simon Roberts

Theatre includes: The Croft (Original Theatre); Witness for the Prosecution (London County Hall); The Mousetrap (St Martins Theatre); Untold Stories (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Wet House (Live Theatre/Soho Theatre); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Breathing Country (Tour); Volpone (Theatre Babel); Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (Perth Theatre); Not AboutHeroes (Byre Theatre); Nicholas Nickleby (Chichester); Tales From Hollywood (Perth Theatre); The Tempest (Liverpool Theatre); Hedda Gabler (Theatre Babel); Smoking With Lulu, Private Lives (Glasgow Citizens); Taming Of The Shrew (Royal Exchange); Learning To Love The Grey (Pleasance Edinburgh); PresentLaughter (Birmingham Rep); Der Protagonist (BBC Symphony Orchestra); King Lear (Leicester Haymarket/ Young Vic/ Tokyo Globe), Amphitryon in Amphitryon (Gate Theatre); A Flea In Her Ear (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Lady From The Sea (Glasgow Citizens); The Rivals (Nottingham Playhouse); Don Gil Of The Green Breeches (Gate Theatre); As You Like It (Old Vic); King Lear (Renaissance Theatre); Midsummer Nights Dream (World Tour); Design For Living (Sheffield Crucible); Unpainted Pictures (Union Theatre); A Chorus Of Disapproval (Cheltenham Everyman); The Devils (Theatr Clwyd); The Cherry Orchard, Wolf in The Park (Sheffield Crucible); Mary Stuart (Greenwich Theatre); Bald Prima Donna (Sheffield Crucible); Man And Superman (Glasgow Citizens); The Importance Of Being Earnest, Twelfth Night (Sheffield Crucible); Tom Jones (Redgrave Theatre Farnham); Mephisto, The Danton Affair (RSC Barbican); The Recruting Officer (Theatr Clwyd); Mr Joyce isLeaving Paris (Kings Head); Down And Out (Paris And London Gate Theatre) and Another Country (Queen’s Theatre).

Television credits include: A Summer in Oxford, Mr Selfridge (ITV); Breathless (ITV); Modern Toss (Channel X); Absolute Power (BBC); Swiss Toni (BBC); The Queen’s Nose (BBC); Ted & Ralph (BBC); Jonathan Creek (BBC); The Famous Five (ITV); The Fast Show (BBC); TheBill (ITV); Poirot (ITV); Coronation Street (ITV); Mapp And Lucia (BBC); By TheSword Divided (BBC); A Woman Of Substance (Channel 4) and Dream Stuffing (Channel 4).

Judith Rae

Judith trained at Mountview Theatre School (Postgraduate Diploma (Acting) and Cardiff University (PG Diploma - Theatre Studies).

Theatre includes: The Mousetrap (UK Tour); Switzerland (Ambassadors Theatre, West End); Lear (Valley of The Rocks, Exmoor); The Importance Of Being Earnest (UK Tour); Deathtrap (UK Tour); A Room With A View (Bath Theatre Royal); AndThen There Were None (UK Tour); La Boheme (Royal albert Hall); Birds Of AFeather (UK Tour); Duet For One (UK Tour); Less Than Kind (UK Tour); SeasonsGreetings (UK Tour); House Of Ghosts (UK Tour); Women On The Verge Of HRT (UK Tour); Private Lives (UK Tour); The Clean House (UK Tour); Bedroom Farce (UK Tour); Strangers On A Train (UK Tour); Marrying The Mistress (UK Tour); Arsenic & Old Lace (UK Tour); The Shell Seekers (UK Tour); My Boy Jack (Yvonne Arnaud & UK Tour) and Corpse! (UK Tour).