The History of Three's Company

Three's Company began in 2001 when Tom, Michael and Yaz staged a production at their local school - a new pantomime: Trouble In Panto Land, written by Michael and Tom. The success of this play - devised, directed and produced by the three - led to plans for a fully independent production in the Summer of 2003 at Buxton's Fringe Festival. On a budget of £60 and a cast and crew of three, Platformation - a new comedy by Tom Crawshaw - sold out its three scheduled performance, sold-out a further two, unadvertised, and picked up four award nominations and an award for Best Production By A Young Company. Aged just 16, the three decided to continue the company on a professional level.

Platformation became the first part of the Transport Trilogy with parts two and three following over the next two years to more awards and sell-out audiences - including the largest total audience figures for any theatre production at the Buxton Fringe to date. From 2003 to 2005, the group staged a total of nine productions including a 400th anniversary production of Othello as part of the Opera House's Studio season for which the group was given a special award at the East Midlands Tourism Awards.

Reviews in Buxton marvelled at Three's Company's "army of fans" and "their huge following in the town and beyond", proclaiming them "Buxton's worst kept secret". In 2005, the Vine Magazine called Three's Company "Buxton's worst kept secret". From this base, the group moved outwards to productions in Manchester, Edinburgh and Oxford. In 2004, Platformation won a place in the first year of '24:7', Manchester's prestigious new-writing festival, and Play On Words went on to win Oxford's New Writing Festival.

2005 saw the company’s first trip to the Edinburgh Fringe with Later Showers, attracting floods of tears from their audiences and glowing reviews from critics. This success was followed by a multi-award-winning, sell-out production in 2007 of Play On Words and the huge critical success Auditorium in 2008. ("ingenious" -The Stage "brilliant" -Three Weeks "excellent" -Fest "magnificent" -Fringe Guru "bonkers" -The Scotsman).

However, the true roots of the company go back further than this. Before Trouble In Panto Land, Tom, Michael and Yaz, all growing up in the small town of Buxton, had been friends and worked on various projects for many years. Michael and Tom first performed together as goslings in Mother Goose at the age of nine; Tom and Yaz started practicing their comedy routines to compere school concerts and run their school magazine together from the age of eleven; and the three have been performing together in shows as disparate as Return To The Forbidden Planet, The Wizard of Oz, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Crucible and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead from the age of twelve.

The future for Three's Company has never been more exciting. The three have been studying at Central School of Speech and Drama (Yaz), Oxford University (Tom) and RADA (Michael) but, following their graduation in July, the three are at last able to work together full-time again. Several projects are being developed in tandem, with rehearsals underway for a secret project in November, plans in motion for their next Edinburgh success, and walls covered in scrawled charts of new ideas in their workshop in Wimbledon... Watch this space!

Now, take a look at our Reviews and Awards page!