Upcoming Special Events

The King of a semi-barbaric kingdom builds a new arena. He needs big event to open with. When his search bears fruit it causes heart ache for the beautiful princess. The production packed the room above the pub in the summer of 1975.

Life for Faz and his twitty assistant, Twoo, has become listless and lacking in sparkle. That is, until Faz invents skungpoomery, or 'thinking up a word and then doing it'. And so saying, Faz and Twoo bunkjam jarmer into the world outside.

On a semi-tropical island five sisters live in idyllic paradise, until two brothers are washed up on the beach. Presented as part of the theatre's 5th Birthday celebrations.

Josef Gross, a director of an unnamed organization, receives a memorandum written in Ptydepe, a constructed language, about an audit. The play centres around his attempts to get the memorandum translated. Later revived in 1995.

A drama telling the true story of Verity Taylor, who suffered from an undiagnosed mental disorder for years, before being incarcerated indefinitely in Broadmoor after setting fire to a chair, aged 20.

Granville Barker's translation of a 1922 French play. An ambitious doctor sets out to make a success of a small-town practice and ends up effectively creating a cult of hypochondria in order to maximise his own takings. Later revived in 1994, with Geoffrey Beevers playing the title role again.

Originally writen for radio. A middle-aged couple have bought a country cottage and are given the remains of an old photograph by the surveyor who found it under the lining paper inside of one of the cupboards. It isa piece of a Victorian family portrait, which now only shows two little girls, photographed in a garden. We learn what they were doing there. 'Random Moments in a May Garden' shows two stories occurring in parallel in the same house, and cuts between the two.

An evening of farce, songs and melodrama. Presented as part of a 'Victorian Season'. On certain days audiences could see this and 'The Middleman' as a special 'bonanza' performance for £5, including supper.

Explores themes of identity, female friendships, demystification of family relationships, sexism and the notion of female creativity.

The Orange Tree's first doorless farce. Molineaux is having an affaire with Suzanne, who's married to Aubin who's having an affaire with Rosa, who's married to Bassinet, and they all find themselves at the dressmaker's flat where Molineaux's wife and mother-in-law show up, so everyone pretends to be someone else, and then... No one does it quite like the French: fast-paced and frolicsome. And for un peu extra, join us for a French cheese and wine party in the theatre during the interval!

When the women of Aggroville decide the killing's gotta stop, they tell their men they'll get no more lovin' til there's no more shooting! Borrowing freely from 'Lysistrata', Wild Wild Women is highspirited, bawdy and tuneful. Created by the same team who produced the Orange Tree's hit musical 'the Lady or the Tiger'.

Shakespeare's tragedy, with Paul Shelley playing the title role. Shakespeare's powerful and magnificent tragedy presented in an 80-seat room over a pub? Can it be done? 'Mr Walters revels in reducing the unmanageable to the simple', said the Times when the Orange Tree staged a full-scale Restoration comedy - 'He edges towards triumph. Now, for the first time, a major Shakespearean production in Richmond's pub theatre. 'Sam Walter's low-budget production uses a small, square, acting-space, shunning traditional costumes or props, concentrating rather on tough and heart-felt interpretation. Off-stage performers are visible throughout in their sweaters and slacks, viewing the action from the sidelines.' The Financial Times.

This is the first London production of Fay Weldon's latest play. When a trendy magazine sets up an experiment, two wives swap homes and lifestyles and the results for all are unexpected. A wry and funny play by a writer whose 'Mr Director' and 'Action Replay' provided earlier Orange Tree hits.

What happens when having won the local paper Mum of the Year competition, the three faces of Mrs Mary Yately decide to reveal all? A huge success at Scarborough where Alan Ackbourn directed the show over three seperate lunctimes, the Orange Tree now puts Me, Myself and I together for its London premiere. Revived the following year, due to popular demand, and in 2004.

As Greek Tragedy might be considered inappropriate to present in an 80-seat pub theatre, it was only a matter of time before we did it! The Bacchae, one of the greatest of Greek plays, deals with mob violence and mass hysteria as it shows us the conflict between Pentheus the King and the Cult of Dionysus.

Revival. Our sell-out Christmas success revived for the summer. What happens when having won the local paper Mum of the Year competition, the three faces of Mrs Mary Yately decide to reveal all? 'The evening is pure pleasure from start to finish' - The Standard. 'Offers more civilised pleasure than any other British musical i've seen this year' - The Guardian.

Three plays: Holyoake, Winter and Romance, which all received highly-acclaimed readings in our Play a Day season, now get premiere productions. The life of the Victorian radical George Jacob Holyoake, played forwards and backwards by two actors at the same time! 'A fast, frothy, hard-edged comedy...peculiarly moving' - Richmond and Twickenham Times.

Three plays: Holyoake, Winter and Romance, which all received highly-acclaimed readings in our Play a Day season, now get premiere productions. An idealist scientist in a crisis. Winter is an extraordinary, powerful and tragic play about father and daughter... 'audience sat enthralled by the unfolding drama' - Richmond and Twickenham Times.

A writer given the opportunity of presenting his own views on a radio programme confronts himself, his mistress, her son and the producer. This is our 20th Saunders production. Bodies, which went on to run in the West End for a year, was first presented at the Orange Tree, and Saunders' most recent stage play Fall formed part of our 10th Birthday season in 1981. This production was follwed by a late night performance of 'A Night With Rochester Sneath' on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.

A witty, new musical revue. Once again an Ayckbourn London premiere. The ideal adult Christmas show with a cast of six weaving their way through 90 minutes of delight.

One of the greatest of Restoration comedies, standing alongside The Way of the World, which we presented with such success in 1980. Dorimant, the womaniser at war with the sex, discards Mrs Loveit, lusts after Belinda, pursues Harriet and avoids mothers, bawds and Sir Fopling Flutter.

The London premiere of the Americn hit musical revue. 'It's the best musical cabaret I've seen in a long time. If you are in love, about to be in love, wish you were in love, then take her, him or them to Starting Here, Starting Now. May it never end.' Pia Lindstrom, NBC TV.

The Appreciation of Music, Making Love, Taking Leave, Suicide. Four interrelated plays that take a wry look at our attitudes to sex and suffering. First given a reading during the Orange Tree's Play a Day festival.

An eloquent exposition of a mid-life crisis. Full of humour and passion. First given a reading as part of the Orange Tree's Play a Day festival.

Adapted from the classic novel by Charles Dickens. The London premiere of this amazing adaptation of Dickens' mill town masterpiece; an epic for Christmas of master v men, fact v fun, death v life. Revived 13th September - 12th October 1985, and later on a European Tour.

After the success last season of Tolstoy's tragic The Power of Darkness, a glorious comedy by Russia's most prolific playwright. The consequences are considerable to all and sundry as Gloumov gulls his way in society.

A festival of new writing. An opportunity for new plays and new writers to be given an initial hearing.

Revival. The big success of last season returns for four weeks only before going on a European Tour under the auspices of the British Council. 'This is a superb production, taut, emotive and vibrant and I can't reccommend it too highly' - Time Out. 'The ever inventive Orange Tree... highly recommended' - City Limits. 'Perhaps the best acting to be seen on any London stage' - Richmond and Twickenham Times. 'Typically imaginative...relentlessly relevant study of rigid economic principles' - The Times.

The family gathers for father's 75th Birthday. But surprises are in store when he tries to redeem his life with the grand gesture. Private and political sparks fly as children and parents, wives and husbands confront each other under the shadow of past failures and present animosities. A powerful new stage play by the well known television playwright and director. 'Penetrating... skilfully combined family dynamics with political import' - Middlesex Chronicle. First given a reading at the Orange Tree's Play a Day festival.

A Variety of Death Defying Acts performed for the amusement and sensation of the general public by Petley's original travelling troupe, without a net and featuring the incomparable Miss Alison. Illusion and reality are inextricably entangled in this disturbing new comedy. Clowns, freaks, escape and highwire artists are just some of the acts making their first appearance on the Orange Tree's stage - while impresario Petley seasrches for the ultimate sensation! 'A brilliant pastiche' - Richmond and Twickenham Times. 'Highly entertaining... witty... fascinating' - Middlesex Chronicle. First given a reading at the Orange Tree's Play a Day festival.

This production was an alteration to the originally scheduled play, The Cherry Orchard, which was cancelled after, via a telephone call with Mike Alfreds, Sam Walters realised that the National Theatre would be producing the play at exactly the same time. Sauce for the Goose was hastily scheduled instead and was a great success.

Every 15 years Linda Polan shares her worries with us. Last time in her one woman shows Can You Smell Gas? and What Are little Girls Made of?, her anxieties encompassed The World - 'I've seen the leftovers from the Passover to Christian Action', she told us, 'but will it be enough?' Her performance of these shows was variously described as: enriching, absurd, moving, unique, savage, vulnerable and witty. Now she returns with Getting You There. 'The last two shows were in the spring and summer of my life; this one's my autumn. I'm still worrying, but not about the universe this time; just Sex and Death. Priorities change as you get older, don't you find?' Once again, this show is written in collaboration with Andrew Davies, author of Rose, whose latest televison serial, A Very Peculiar Practice, has just been seen on BBC2 and received with great acclaim.

Towards the middle of the sixteenth century there lived in the electorship of Brandenburg a horse dealer by the name of hans Kohlhaas. Until his thrity eighth year this extraordinary man would have been thought the very model of a good citizen. Only he carried one virtue to excess. His sense of justice, as delicate as a gold balance, turned him into a brigamd and a murderer. This story of a minor injustice sweeping its protagonists into revolution shows James Saunders uniquely in command of yet another area of theatre. When German theatres first read the play, they buried their wariness of an Englishman daring to adapt their Kleist's version of a classic tale, and the play was accorded the honour of opening simultaneously in three major theatres and within a year had received 15 productions in Germany! From a story by Heinrich von Kleist.

The UK premiere of a new American musical. Two men and a woman. And a bridge and a river. Love, marriage and suicide and success and failure all are treated with delight and joy in this hugely successful adaptation of Schisgal's Play. What About Luv follows in the footsteps of the Orange Tree's previous hit musicals at Christmas. Book early! Based on the play 'Luv' by Murray Schlisgal.

Vinaver is undisputably one of France's most important contemporarary playwrights. This is the first play of his to be staged in England, and takes place in the customer service department of a manufacturer of coffee grinders. Set at a time of crisis for the firm, the five different worlds of the characters interesect at the office but reach beyond too into their private and emotional lives. As with much of Vinaver's work, the play deals with the way the actitvites of a large industrial company affect the lives of ordinary people. And he brings to his subject a unique and particular style. An important premiere for the Orange Tree. 'Sam Walters of the Orange Tree Theatre, with a discernment one longs to see in West End managements, has brought to Britain a clever subtly constructed comedie melancolique by an established French author in whom the British theatre has shown no interest.' The Daily Telegraph

Nine new plays receive rehearsed readings.

Winner of the 1986 Radio Times Drama Award, Definitely the Bahamas, with its acid and often hilarious comment on middle aged, middle class existence, is also a serious study of loneliness, cruelty and the importance of illusions. A Kind of Arden and Spanish Girls, the two short pieces with which the evening opens, offer contrasting treatments of similar themes with subjects ranging from package holidays to war crimes. In all three plays Crimp makes our attitudes to other countries and their inhabitants his point of departure for a charcateristically wry look at human relations. This is the fourth production of Martin Crimp's work to be presented at the Orange Tree Theatre. Part of this Time Out Award-winning Season, 'awarded to Sam Walters for an exceptional season at the Orange Tree. Described by one of the panel as a 'theatrical totter', he has had a good living off the rejects of 20th century drama. A farce, of the 50s, a Granville Barker, an early John Whiting and the Octogenarian Rodney Ackland's 'Absolute Hell' all proved fascinating discoveries. And in Martin Crimp, Walters showed he had a keen eye for the future as well.'

Winner of the 1986 Radio Times Drama Award, Definitely the Bahamas, with its acid and often hilarious comment on middle aged, middle class existence, is also a serious study of loneliness, cruelty and the importance of illusions. A Kind of Arden and Spanish Girls, the two short pieces with which the evening opens, offer contrasting treatments of similar themes with subjects ranging from package holidays to war crimes. In all three plays Crimp makes our attitudes to other countries and their inhabitants his point of departure for a charcateristically wry look at human relations. This is the fourth production of Martin Crimp's work to be presented at the Orange Tree Theatre. Part of this Time Out Award-winning Season, 'awarded to Sam Walters for an exceptional season at the Orange Tree. Described by one of the panel as a 'theatrical totter', he has had a good living off the rejects of 20th century drama. A farce of the 50s, a Granville Barker, an early John Whiting and the Octogenarian Rodney Ackland's 'Absolute Hell' all proved fascinating discoveries. And in Martin Crimp, Walters showed he had a keen eye for the future as well.'

In Houdini, (written and performed by Barry Killerby), the extraordinary private life of the great escapologist gives unusual insights into the legendary figure. Born in Budapest in 1874, his was a life of amazing conflict and contradiction; of enormous fame and success and yet of haunting private grief; of highly dangerous feats but years of painstaking dedication, passion and even cruelty. It is a real life rags to riches story but one with its roots in fear, guilt and obsession. When Barry Killerby made his first appearance at the Orange Tree as an apprentice escape artist in A Variety of Death Defying Acts, John Thaxter wrote in the Richmond and Twickenham Times 'an astonishing debut performance... talent for danger and theatre magic'. Jean Baptiste Lully was Court Composer to Louis XIV - but he was Italian, not generally liked and started life in the Royal kitchens. In Praise be to God, Graeme Fife has invented a royal chef who glitters with elegant rage in his kitchens as Lully climbs the ladder of success. Reg is the attendant at the Covent Garden public lavatory in this portarit of a salt of the earth philosopher with a homespun, pine fresh humour. Praise Be to god and Reg were performed by Edward de Souza. Part of this Time Out Award-winning Season, 'awarded to Sam Walters for an exceptional season at the Orange Tree. Described by one of the panel as a 'theatrical totter', he has had a good living off the rejects of 20th century drama. A farce of the 50s, a Granville Barker, an early John Whiting and the Octogenarian Rodney Ackland's 'Absolute Hell' all proved fascinating discoveries. And in Martin Crimp, Walters showed he had a keen eye for the future as well.'

Charles Pentwick's wife's friend has seen a girl leaving his London flat in the early hours of the morning. Although innocent, the wrath of his young wife has driven Charles and his colleague Bobby Bentley to spend a few days in the country. But Mrs Harris the housekeeper, has been replaced by her daughter Molly and Mr Mole is camping nearby. Then Fritzy Villiers, the girl in the flat arrives, and so does Dick, and so does Mrs Pentwick,. And where is Mrs Harris when she is needed and what can be done about Mr Mole and the Vicar and 'The Scarlet Spider'? And who is Carfax? We rightly treasure and value Feydeau but tend to undervalue our own farce tradition, so here is a British farce well worth reviving - a 'luxury' for Christmas to follow in the tradition of our highly praised and hugely enjoyed productions of Feydeau. Revived in 2004. Part of this Time Out Award-winning Season, 'awarded to Sam Walters for an exceptional season at the Orange Tree. Described by one of the panel as a 'theatrical totter', he has had a good living off the rejects of 20th century drama. A farce of the 50s, a Granville Barker, an early John Whiting and the Octogenarian Rodney Ackland's 'Absolute Hell' all proved fascinating discoveries. And in Martin Crimp, Walters showed he had a keen eye for the future as well.'

Rodney Ackland is one of Britain's most distinguished dramatists. He lives in Richmond and he is 80 years old this year. To celebrate his birthday we are presenting this epic play.

With a cast of 18, it is set in 'La vie en rose' drinking club in 1945. The war has ended and it is the eve of the general election. The club has been a refuge for many during the war years, but now they all face a new future with varying hopes and fears.

First presented under the title The Pink Room, the demise of the Lord Chamberlain has allowed Ackland to completely revise his text. The result is a play that sets people's personal and private relationships against a background of national and world affairs.

Absolute Hell is a funny, moving and powerful play about people's desperate attempts to make their lives work. This production was part of the Time Out Award-winning season in 1988: "awarded to Sam Walters for an exceptional season at the Orange Tree. Described by one of the panel as a 'theatrical totter', he has had a good living off the rejects of 20th century drama. A farce of the 50s, a Granville Barker, an early John Whiting and the Octogenarian Rodney Ackland's 'Absolute Hell' all proved fascinating discoveries. And in Martin Crimp, Walters showed he had a keen eye for the future as well.'

This delightful comedy of marital strife began its life in 1760 as a short farce. Its success was so great that the actor manager David Garrick encouraged the author to develop the play into a full-length comedy. As such, it provided Garrick with one of his most famous roles and the Drury Lane audiences with one of their favourite plays. Mr Lovemore ignores his wife and competes with his friend Sir Brilliant Fashion in the pursuit of the beautiful Widow Bellmour. Meanwhile, Sir Bashful Constant, fearful of fashionable ridicule, goes to desperate lengths lest anyone discover that he actually loves his wife. Disguise and eception, the staple diet of 18th century comedy, are plentiful in a play that stands comparison with the works of Sheridan and Goldsmith. Another unjustly neglected Orange Tree rssurrection.

At last one of the longest-running successes of New York theatre arrives in London! When the Orange Tree presented Horovitz's The Primary English Class in 1979 it was a tremendous hit and transferred into the West End. Ever since then we have been trying to arrange the right time to present Line. Now this season it will be directed by James Hammerstein, who was responsible for the original New York production, and the cast will feature a guest from the United States. 'Is this a line?' says Stephen to open the play and from then on, as the queue forms, the struggle for position ensues with some surprising diversions on the way to an extraordinary climax.

1989 marks the centenary of the birth of Jean Cocteau, one of France's most celebrated and notorious artists. His writing, his art and his lifestyle outraged pre-war France and his diverse talent gave him a unique importance. Les Parents Terribles (1938) is his finest naturalistic play. Banned when it was first presented, it tells the story of a suffocatingly close knit family and the effect on them all when the son finds a particular girlfriend. Presented as part of a season of Three French plays.

The Orange Tree's first Moliere tells the delightful and farcical story of M. Jourdain's desire to better himself. Dacing Master, music master, Philosopher and Tailor are all called to minister to M. Jourdain's image of the ideal gentleman, while wife, daughter and acquaintances wait to exploit. One of the funniest and most good-hearted plays ever written. Presented as part of a season of Three French Plays.

Mrs Warren's Profession is the first full-length Shaw to be presented at the Orange Tree. What will happen when Vivie, the mathematician, learns the true source of her often absent mother's wealth? This witty and revolutionary play was written in 1894 and promptly banned by the Lord Chamberlain. In 1933 Shaw wrote, 'the ban on performances of the play has long since been withdrawn; and when it is the critics hasten to declare that the scandal of underpaid virtue and overpaid vice is a thing of the past... it is amazing how the grossest abuses thrive on their reputation for being old unhappy far-off things in an age of imaginary progress.' Firected by one of Britain's leading actors.

What could have been, what might have been. These are the tenses of remorse and regret, but also the tenses of endless possibility'. In a series of encounters - bizarre, erotic, often comic, ultimately violent - Anthony Steadman tests the truth of this assertion, only to find himself confounded by his own nature and the unfathomable arbitrainess of events. Play with Repeats was written under the Thames Television Resident Playwright scheme and continues the author's longstanding relationship with the theatre.]

First presented in the summer of 1975 and then brought back for Christmas, the show caused queues of chaos in the days before telephone bookings.

This epic play is about a battle for freedom ,and a passionate love story. Set in the England of 1066, when Hereward The Wake seeks to dethrone William the Conqueror, it promises to fill the Orange Tree Theatre to bursting point. David Pinner who is also an actor, has been writing consistently since the success of his early play Fanghorn. Whe The Last Englishman was presented on the radio, The Listener wrote of 'this magnificent play'. This is the first play of the Barnes playwright to be presented at the Orange Tree. This production is presented in association with The British Actors Theatre Company and the cast will include Kate O'Mara as well as other regular membrrs of the company. The company chose always to work without a director.

The reception this February of our adaptation of Adam Bede was so overwhelming from audiences and critics alike that it would be perverse of us to deny a larger audience the opportunity of seeing it. So Adam Bede returns, and these are some of the reviews: 'Riveting dramatisation deserves to be a sell out... sharply focuse drama pulsing with powerfully felt life'. The Independent. 'Has unearthed more humour in the novel than I dreamt was possible' The Daily Telegraph. 'Mr Beevers has done an outstandingly skilful and subtle job... a three hour performance that seems like an hour. The story is perfectly told' The Sunday Express.

The first new play in the new theatre centres around the extraordinary life of Louis Wain and his five sisters. Wain was born in 1860 and achieved fame as an artist and illustrator, known principally for his drawings of cats and the famous Louis wain Annuals. He died in an asylum in1939. Jane Coles has taken the strange and claustraphobic atmosphere of the Wains' Westgate on Sea household as the starting point for a play that explores with humour and compassion the finely drawn line between imagination and madness, fantasy and nightmare. Jane Coles has often written for radio, but this is her first stage play.

Presented in the Room above the pub alongside 'Stars in the Morning Sky' by Alexander Galin, which played in the main theatre.

Presented in the Room above the pub, played at lunchtime.

This play was inspired by William Hogarth's canvas. The Pool of Bethesda was painted for St Bartholomew's Hospital in London in 1735, where it still hangs today. Hogarth chose as his theme Christ healing the lame man, and it is said that he used the sick from the wards of the hospital to model as 'the blind, the halt and the withered' who crowd at the edge of the pool hoping to be cured. The play focuses on the delusions of a modern day doctor who works at the hospital and develops and obsession with the Hogarth canvas. Allan Cubitt wrote this moveing, complex and passionate play, which moves between the ahllucinatory Hogartian world and the realities of our own, while he was a writer on attachment at the Guildhall School of Music and drama. the Pool of Bethesda won the Thames Television Theatre Writers Scheme best play award in 1990.

Presented at lunchtimes in the Room above the pub.

Public performances of a play for children, school parties could book 4 -14 December. An exciting piece of theatre in which the children tell the story for themselves. All the happiness in the world is draining away and soon there will be no laughter left. If Tom the bell maker can make the bell of happiness the world will be saved, but he has just one hour to complete the job. Tom and his friends can succeed only with the help of the audience.

Richmond's Rodney Ackland, who was one of Britain's most distinguished playwrights, died in December. In 1984 we presented The Dark River of which Hilary Spurling wrote 'perhaps the one indisputably great play of the past half century in English'. Our production was received with unanimous acclaim - 'sensitive, emotive, marvellous...highly recommended' said Time Out, while Sheridan Morley wrote in Punch 'remarkable rediscovery...deserves much longer life...one of the theatrical treats of the year'. In 1988, our production of Absolute Hell was also hailed as a masterpiece and led to the recent BBC TV production with Judi Dench. The Dark River is set in a Thames backwater in 1937. As we continue the debate about the extent of our commitment to Europe, its picture of the British at the time of the Spanish Civil War remains as relevant as ever. Our 1984 production ran for only 3 weeks, so here is its much deserved 'longer life'. It will also be directed by Sam Walters with Belinda Lang coming back to play the leading part of a woman who, while coming to terms with the end of her career as a ballet dancer, is torn between a future with one of two very different men.

This production was also performed as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, 1992. While his country is in turmoil, a king in exile has to decide how best to bring peace to his land. Published in 1928 but never produced, this world premiere by one of Britain's theatrical giants proves now to be strangely topical as royal families at home and abroad agonise over their roles. In 1988 our premiere prioduction of Barker's The Secret life was part of our Time Out Award winning season. As a result we were invited this year to Edinburgh to participate in the Festival's Harley Granville Barker retrospective. With a 'rebel' army marching in his name, 'government' forces marshalling themselves to resist, a king who is prepared to compromise and a queen urging him to grasp back power, the scene is set for conflict.

Revived in 1993. Set in 1804 as an eccentric Dorset family prepares for Napolean's invasion, this glorious comedy provides an ideal Christams play for our 21st Birthday. Sir Timothy's plan to defeat Napolean, and his brother Lamprett's obsession with fire fighting become entwined with the local home guards' defence exercise. meanwhile Dorcas falls in love with a passing soldier and her mother prepares to join the East Anglian Amazon corps. English eccentricity at its most joyous. 'It was written at a time of great personal happiness...war appeared the greatest absurdity'. Our premiere production in 1987 of John Whiting's No More A-Roving, discovered after his early death, was received with great acclaim and full houses. A Penny for a Song was first produced in 1951 and then in a revised version in 1962. About six years ago the RSC revived the play using the first version. This production by Sam Walters will use the 1962 version of the play.

Following the runaway success of The Bell, our play for primary school children last Christmas, we present another 1 hour play for 6-11 year olds. Great fun for all is guaranteed with every child (and adult!) in the audience joing in.

The final play of the most successful female playwright before Agatha Christie! First performed in 1722, this is a masterpiece of comic theatrical inventiveness by one of Garrick's favourite playwrights. The plots of Sir Philip Moneylove, the aspirations of the Widow Heedless, the roguery of Ned Freeman, the virtue of Mr Watchit and the true love of Olivia and the disinherited Sir John Freeman can only reach acceptable conclusions through the intervention of Artifice. Susannah Centlivre, actress, active in Whig political circles, married to Queen Anne's chief cook, wrote 19 plays, most of which oustripped Wycherley and Congreve in popularity, now unjustly neglected - so here is another Orange Tree discovery which promises to be as successful and joyous as the new theatre's opening production of All in The Wrong.

Presented in the Room above the Pub. A new musical based on 'Bernice Bobs Her Hair' by F Scott Fitzgerald. In the summer of 1920, Marjorie Harvey - beautiful, popular, single and seventeen - enjoys the high summer of her youth. The only problem is Cousin Bernice - so drab, so dull, such a funny girl. But as the summer progresses, Bernice starts to change. And a chain of events begins which will mean that things will never be quite the same again... a bittesweet tale of adolescence, friendship and haircuts.

Presented in the Room above the pub. Wickedly bawdy Dolly, former child star of the Music Halls, is celebrating the visit of her daughter and granddaughter to her Belfast home. But the delightful childhood memories evoked by the reunion of three generations are unable to calm the bitter family and religious conflicts which ensue. Against this background of fiercely divided family loyalties and political unrest, and with the use of traditional Irish street songs, The Belle of the Belfast City is a vibrant amd moving potrait of life in Northern Ireland. Christina Reid is an award winning local playwright. She was born and brought up in Belfast and emigrated to London in 1987.

Public performances of the primary Shakesepare production. Now in its fifth year.

A comedy - three women, six men, four acts, rural scenery, much talk of literature…five bushels of love'. This was Chekhov's own synopsis of his first full length play to be performed. The Seagull, written almost 100 years ago, shocked its first audiences. The first production in St Petersburg was a failure, the second, by the newly formed Moscow Arts Theatre, was a sensation and perhaps the most famous first night in theatre history. With this play Chekhov changed the face of drama and comedy mixed with tragedy in a way never seen before.

A young would be writer has shot himself. Or has he? Unsure of the evidence presented and highly suspicious of the theatrical house party in which he finds himself involved, Inspector Carboys pursues his own line of thought to discover who really fired that shot. See The Seagull and then don't miss the same cast in this unique whodunnit.

A young would be writer has shot himself. Or has he? Unsure of the evidence presented and highly suspicious of the theatrical house party in which he finds himself involved, Inspector Carboys pursues his own line of thought to discover who really fired that shot. See The Seagull and then don't miss the same cast in this unique whodunnit.

In March 1991 Caroline Blakiston became the first English actress to play in Chekhov in Russia in Russian. She relives her adventures experienced while performing in The Cherry Orchard in Chekhov's birthplace and with the Moscow Arts Theatre.

The good nature of Goldsmith's Good Natur'd Man - Mr Honeywood - is both his charm and his downfall. He has faith in the faithless, gives even handed support to an utterly opposed married couple, and worst of all totally lacks recognition that the lady of his dreams truly loves him. Add to this mix a faithful servant, an irate uncle, illicit but determined young lovers deceiving parents under their very noses, and that still familiar figure the political lobbyist selling rumours and peddling probably unenforceable influence. The very spirit of the 18 century from one of its greatest writers, whose poetry and essays, his novel the Vicar of Wakefield and his only other and more famous play She Stoops to Conquer, made him the infuriating favourite of Dr Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds and fellow dramatist Colman. Wayward, improvident, irascible, eccentric, but assuredly a Good Natur'd Man...

Play for 6-11 year olds. A Science Fiction fantasy in which the sneeze-prone hero, basher, whilrs through the ages to encounter Arthurian legends, Arabian nights, the Betweentimers and the Machine people.

Presented in the Room. Set in a Puerto Rican enclave on Long island, The Promise tells the story of a forbidden marriage and a father's attempts to destroy it. Rivera's fantastical play is an exotic weave of the surreal and the real - a world where chickens lay pyramid shaped eggs, children eat furniture and promises can never be broken.

To accompany The Promise and Eva Peron, rehearsed readings of three Hispanic plays to made up a season in the Room: Fefu and her Friends by Maria Irene Fornes (Cuba), Bitter Lemon by Jaime Salom (Spain) and When Elvis Met Che in Denver by Sol Biderman (Brazil).

Presented in the Room. Blurring the borders between reality and delirium, Eva Peron is Copi's outrageous account of the last moments of Argentina's most famous First Lady. 'Santa Evita' waits for death, riddled with cancer, heavily sedated and dreaming of her Swiss bank accounts. Shocking and bitterly funny.

Fay and Anne were best friends at university during the heady years when the classic writers of feminist literature from Kate Millet to Germaine Greer changed the way women looked at themsleves forever. Now 20 years later, Fay is herself a feminist author of great repute, and Anne is a devoted wife and mother. So what's the secret Anne has been hugging to herself for nearly a decade? A secret she feels she can share only with Fay. Is it 'No big Deal?' or will it blow her cosy little world into pieces?

Presented in the Room. A revival of this classic 60s comedy: a hilarious cautionary tale of friendship, youth and failure. Huddersfield 1965, Malcolm Scrawdyke, expelled from art school, leads the Party of Dynamic Erection to exact revenge on his ex tutor.

Public performances of Primary Shakespeare education project. The sixth Orange Tree Primary Shakespeare project will introduce thousands of local school children to one of the bard's most famous works.

A psychological thriller based on the celebrated real life Wallace murder case of 1931. A young man has been tried and hanged for the infamous Mill Court Murder, and life in the exclusive apartment in which it was committed can return to normal. Or so it seems - until the arrival at Mill Court of 'someone waiting' in the hall. What follows proves to be a terrifyingly accurate study of an obsessional personality. Emlyn Williams, famous for thriller such as Night Must fall and Trespass as well as his autobiographical The Corn is Green, was fascinated by the psychopathic personality and had an uncanny knack of inhabiting the criminal mind. Someone Waiting was his penultimate play to be produced in the West End (1953), and is here presented in the revised version he wrote for Broadway two years later.

Presented in the Room. A respected doctor opens an asylum, but as his definition of madness changes nobody is safe from the psychiatrist. Strange, funny and frantic. Freely adapted from the short story by Machado de Assis.

The British professional premiere of Kander and Ebb's first show together, and the one that launched the 19 year old Liza Minelli. Now re-written for its 1988 off Broadway revival, it arrives in London for the first time. The story tells of a young fashion illustrator determined to make it in New York who falls in love with a radical WPA artist. An enchanting love story, set in the winter of 1935, the show peoples the stage with hopeful young graduates, idealistic communists, fashion designers and artists, songwriters, dance teams and the unemployed! And there is a galaxy of glorious songs.

As a tribute to James Saunders, we will presenting lunchtime performances in the new theatre of Bye Bye Blues (the first play especially written for the Orange Tree). To celebrate his 70th birthday on Sunday 8 January, the perfomance will be followed by readings of two of Saunders' major plays, including Bodies with Dinsdale Landen.

Ptydeope, a new language designed to create office efficiency is introduced with chaotic results. A play about rubber stamps and where to put the accounts department now the translation centre takes up so much space. A play about what's for lunch, power struggles and office systems. A play about all the 'isms' designed to make life function with greater ease. The Memorandum was first produced in Prague in 1965 before its author became a 'silenced playwright'. President of the Czech Republic since 1989, Havel's masterpiece is as relevant - and funny - as it ever was. This is the ninth Orange Tree theatre production of a play by Vaclav Havel, including the British premiere of The Memorandum in 1977.

Twenty children plot to kill their father. An orange tree grows out of the floor of a Los Angeles apartment. A young woman's mismatched eyes keep her awake for months and allow her to see into the future. Each Day dies with sleep is the latest play by Jose Rivera to be produced at the Orange Tree Theatre. One of America's most original and exciting writers, his previous play, The Promise, was premiered to great critical acclaim in the Room, also directed by Dominic Hill.

Special public performances of the Primary Shakespeare Education Project.

It is a brilliant piece of work, full of observation and bitter wit, with an unerring quality of theatrical effectiveness.' So writes Sir John Gielgud of The Maitlands in which he starred in 1934. This we believe is its first London revival. Set in the seaside house of a family who have lost their money during the Depression, it reveals with humour and pathos all their hopes, fears and aspirations as carnival day draws near. Ronald Mackenzie was killed in a car accident at the age of 29 in 1932 during the highly successful run of his only other play Musical Cahirs. As with Rodney Ackland, the Orange Tree is again reviving the work of a lost playwright and one who at the time of his death was considered the most gifted of his generation.

A magical and exciting adaptation of the Grimm Brother's classic folk tale. With original songs and music and plenty of joining in. Rumplestiltskin will be a fun packed christmas treat fior children aged 6-11.

The compelling portrait of Claire, a woman on the verge, both personally and professionally. In the carefully controlled environment of her plant laboratory, she is attempting to bring a new life form to fruition. The repercussions for her daughter and the three men in her life are both comic and catastrophic. Susan Glaspell, a colleague of Eugene O'Neill, was highly regarded as one of the most brilliant playwrights of her time. Written in 1921, the Manchester Guardian described the first British production of The Verge as, 'extraordinarily interesting...fresh, curious and dramatically alive...it is an attempt to capture something beyond the reaches of our souls.' Following the phenomenal success of The Case of Rebellious Susan, Auriol Smith returns to the Orange Tree to direct this undiscovered masterpiece of 20th century American drama. The play is set in New England, USA, in the early 1920s. The action takes place on three consecutive days.

The Best New Play in the Martini / TMA Regional Theatre awards 1992 receives its London premiere. Sal is pregnant and Ray is ecstatic. But their consultant has only bad news to offer. While Sal tries to comprehend the impact of the decision she alone must make, Ray proves to be not much help, the midwife refuses to get involved and all the Consultant wants to do is forget he is a consultant and go for a walk in the hills with his dog. Claire Luckham's highly praised play is a gentle study of some of the persoanl and medical issues which surround pregnancy - and the story of a woman's attempt to accept that not all children are as perfect as we would like them to be. 'Hooray for Claire Luckham's The Choice...a rich, challenging and extraordinary drama.' The Observer.

Bodies is a play which, when we have laughed at its wit, been held in the grip of its drama and revelled in the colours and layers of its language, still raises echo after echo in our minds and hearts ... Dinsdale Landen's performance is worth going miles to see!' The Sunday Times. Two married couples: two affairs. Now they meet again after nine years. One couple has had therapy. The other couple has Simpson on a life support machine. Bodies was originally written for the Orange Tree Theatre in 1977. It returns to open our 25th birthday season. We recently presented James Saunders' latest play Retreat to enormous acclaim. The return of Bodies provides an ideal complement - Saunders at his searing best.

A new play by award-winning Stephen Bill, tracing 11 years in the lives of a group of friends in the Midlands. The highs and lows of their relationships are set against efforts to build an arts centre in the shifting political and social climate of the 1980s and early 1990s. What the Heart Feels is very much a play for today, about a close-knit group about to break up and move on, and their hopes and fears as yet another general election looms. Curtains, Stephen Bill's acclaimed play was described by Jack Tinker in the Daily Mail as 'The miracle of Stephen Bill's new work is that it manages to be one of the funniest plays in London - while also being one of the most profound and painful...as fine a play as you will find this side of paradise'. A cast of 13 adults and 5 children directed by Sam Walters.

Presented in the Room. The delightful Victorian duo Derek Beard and David Timson with Helen Crayford at the piano return to the Orange Tree with a musical evening to treasure as Reggie and Freddie (The Handsome Cads) struggle with life.

Presented in the Room at lunchtime. Anniversary production. Revist the play that opened the Orange Tree Theatre in the room above the pub on 31 December 1971. On the verge of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence, four actors and a director improvise around the theme of racial tension. Twenty five years on, where are we now?

I'd like to have been a pioneer!' says the heroine of Inheritors, Madeleine Fejevary. 'Some ways they had it fierce, but think what fun they had! A whole big land to open up! A big new life to begin! Why did so much get shut out? Just a little way back, anything might have been. What happened?' Inheritors is an epic play about the creation of a country, beginning in 1879, when an idea is born, sweeping to 1920 when the same idea is in danger of betrayal and destruction. A wonderfully theatrical play, with blazing relevance for us today, Inheritors was described in the 1920s by James Agate in The Sunday Times as a play to be ranked alongside Ibsen's The Master Builder. The Orange Tree's recent production of Glaspell's The Verge excited interest and divided the critics. We now follow it with something very different but just as powerful.

If a claw is caught, the bird is lost'. Set amongst a peasant community in 19th century Russia and inspired by real life events, The Power of Darkness is a powerful and intense drama depicting greed, murder, adultery and infanticide. A great Christian Tragedy, it is considered to be the mighty novelist's finest play. When the Orange Tree premiered its translation in 1984, The Spectator wrote, 'The Power of Darkness rends the air with greatness' and Michael Billington in The Guardian described it as 'Leo Tolstoy's naturalistic masterpiece...there is no question that the Orange Tree has uncovered a dramatic landmark and done it rich justice'. Sean Holmes returns from the RSC to direct this new production.

Remember, girls - not slim for to-day. Not slim for tomorrow. But slim for life!' Thus Siobhan the 'Achiever of the Year '94', inspires her hopeful new recruits in the Slim for Life Dining Club. But the determination to succeed comes with a price. Just how much is that price worth paying? Premiered earlier this year in Alan Ayckbourn's new Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, directed by the Orange Tree's Auriol Smith, Love Me Slender comes to the Orange Tree to complete our 25th birthday season.

Public performances of education project.

Presented in the Room. Food / alcohol addiction? Relationship troubles? Phobias / depression / anxiety? Talk it over with Chrissie, self-trained counsellor and guide. Will travel. Competitive rates. Oh! And all major credit cards accepted.

Madge went shopping to buy some comics for her son Marcus. Thirty years later she returns and Marcus is in for a rude awakening.

Mother versus son. The inevitable conflicts. Crisis faced alone and together.

Paul Shelley returns to the part of Sir John Restless in the 18th century comedy which triumphantly opened the new Orange Tree Theatre in 1991. Our young lovers, Berverley and Belinda, find themselves embroiled in the marital strife of the mutually jealous Sir John and Lady Restless. Intrigue, misunderstanding and jealousies escalate, threatening to destroy everything except the audiences' enjoyment.

Paul Shelley plays Macbeth with Fiona Ramsay as Lady Macbeth, in the new Orange Tree Theatre's first major Shakespeare production. This tragedy of greed and ambition is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, and promises to make a powerful impact in the intimate confines of the Orange Tree. Directed in minimal style by Sam Walters, it will be only the third Shakespeare production that the theatre has ever produced. 'Ultimately it is a bold bloody and resolute production' Time Out. 'Engrossing stuff'' The Times. 'We underestimate the director of this production, Sam Walters, at our peril' ITV & Ch4 Teletext.

The combination of George Eliot and Geoffrey Beevers won a Time Out Award in 1990 with our stunning and hugely popular production of Adam Bede. We now follow this with Silas Marner, a tale of betrayal and redemption. When a man's heart has been turned to stone, who but a child could bring it to life. but, will the past rise up to destroy the hopes for the future?

To open our season, an unknown farce from the author of The Magistrate and Dandy Dick. Written and reviled in 1904 when it caused a scandal, A Wife Without a Smile follows the varied attempts of Henry Rippinghill, aided by assorted friends and colleagues, to get his new wife to share his sense of humour. But what if the marriage isn't valid? For whom might the doll hanging from the boat house ceiling then dance?!

A sweeping drama of anger and sorrow spanning three generations of an extraordinary family. An old log cabin away from the bustle of the city is the setting for the story of Victoire and her descendents. Her distress at being forced to separate from her home and her lover, who is also her brother, fuels the passion and drama of eighty years of family relationships. Michael Tremblay is Canada's leading playwright.When the play was presented at the Traverse Theatre, the critics said 'a lyrical, poetical, sad, comic and touching play...not to be missed...heartbreaking and haunting'. 'Dominic Hill’s fantastic production. All sunlight and shadows, it combines precise, silken performances with the seductive revelry of a half-remembered dream' Time Out. 'Dominic Hill’s sensitive, graceful production… Notable moments in an enchanted evening are Sarah Tansey’s farewell to her home, Tricia Kelly’s astonished discovery of the heavens, and Richard Heffer’s affectionate memory of his ungainly mother alone, in the lake, laughing.' The Times.

Back to basics', French style 1900. 'The magistrate must be above and beyond all moral reproach'. This is a challenge that Mademoiselle Gobette, creator of the operetta 'Ooh La, La, La Marquise', cannot resist. Nor can any man resist her, from a provincial judge to the Minister of Justice himself. From her arrival in the backwoods town of Gray, two of the best farceurs of 19th century Paris, spin a dizzying series of seductions, cover-ups, mistaken identities and rapid promotions, which catch everyone well and truly in the act!

Revived due to popular demand. The London premiere of an important play by a major American writer. Sally has been left a Long Island beach house by her gay brother. When she and her husband invite his sister and her husband to join them for the Fourth of July weekend, the tensions come not only from the brother's past, but from within and between themselves as they face an uncertain future. And is the man out in the sea waving or drowning? 'The Orange Tree has produced a gem in Terrence McNally's bittersweet comedy about four fraughty bickering heterosexuals cast in the gay deep end. McNally imagines two straight couples celebrating the Fourth of July on a Fire Island beach house that one of their number has inherited from her dead gay brother...a great find, as humane as it is humerous’, The Standard. ‘Unforgettable opening...the interweaving concerns of the foursome as they eat, shower, fight, reminisce and at last accept flags from their dancing neighbours is beautifully revealed', The Times. 'Auriol Smith's production is polished, highly charged and boasts fine performances', The Financial Times.

The play for Richmond. The Time: the immediate future. The Place: the outskirts of London, a city that is now an airport. Four ordinary people try to cope in an increasingly alien world and find that their survival comes at a price. Set against a background of noise, pollution and lawlessness, Low Flying Aircraft paints a frank and disturbing picture of a future London. Heathrow is now the biggest employer in the country and has the largest number of terminals in the world. Leanne works at the airport. Her husband Cody, is a recluse in her flat. Their life is invaded by Tara, a trainee air hostess. Susan, a social worker who lives upstairs, tries to help. “Dominic Hill’s production capitalises on the theatre’s ensemble policy by getting powerful performances from Jeremy Crutchley as the hermetic exhausted wife, Sarah Tansey as the beaming destroyer and Lucy Tregear as the stylish immigration officer”, The Guardian. “Very funny”, Time Out. “Stylish direction”, The Stage.

An emotive tale about a forbidden love affair which has not been performed in London since 1907. This Orange Tree revival is directed by Auriol Smith whose last work from this period won her a Time Out Award. “This is the best of his seven plays, and Auriol Smith’s delicately tuned but ruthlessly observant production does it proud. It is a study in prejudices and incompatibilities, both hard and even handed, and it is much less dated than you might think”, The Sunday Times. “Auriol Smith, working with resident designer Tim Meacock, has staged the piece with rewarding attention to detail…But the hit of the show is Octavia Walters who…lights up the stage with her luminous presence. A star is born”, The Stage. “Auriol Smith’s fluent direction hits just the right note of indulgent good humour”, The Times.

Suzi and Paul are friends. Julia and Mark are married. Mark is having an affair with Suzi. Julia accosts Suzi in the street and asks her 'Do you ever think you might be hurting someone?' Paul wonders if Suzi is attracted to Mark because he is unavailable. Mark wants to leave Julia and move in with Suzi. Suzi wonders if she is ready to integrate her personal belongings with someone else's. However, a traumatic event sends these relationships in quite different directions. The play investigates the drama and the comedy in the lives of people as they fall in and out of love and waver between togetherness and separateness. 'A brilliantly written piece of theatre,' What's On Stage. 'A debut which does not simply show promise but substantially delivers', The Financial Times.

As with short plays in our old studio theatre in the room above the pub, performances run from Thursdays to Sundays. Two men, one an experienced older worker, the other a youth on work experience, are high up on the ledge of an office building. The task is to put up the new sign. But Frank not only has to deal with the seeming vagaries of his young apprentice, but he also has the cussedness of Brian in signage to hinder him.

The latest play by one of the world's leading playwrights is an event not to be missed. This most personal of plays has the author returning to his early years as a sailor and discovering, in an unusual and theatrical way, the well springs of his writing. This production was the uk premiere. "captivating production, with evocative use of light and sound, is played with delicacy and finesse", Evening Standard. "Auriol Smith's assured intelligent production", The Daily Telegraph. "Magnificently played.

Set against the background of the daily of life in the pits and the industrial unrest of 1912, Minnie, the daughter-in-law, has to fight to win the commitment of her husband Luther, for so long dominated by powerful figure of his mother. In the 1960s the Royal Court trilogy Lawrence's plays revealed him as a great dramatist. "Sam Walter's production has the right pressure-cooker quality and the performances are outstanding", The Guardian. "Sam Walter's production is observant, psychologically probing", The Sunday Times. "Grippingly down-to-earth production", The Evening Standard. "Superb revival", The Independent. "Excellent revival", The Herald.

This production of Hamlet was part of our annual Primary Shakespeare project. Shakespeare's famous tragedy of murder, ghosts, indecision and madness was presented in a specially adapted performance of the play designed for primary school children. The project allows the children to become imaginatively involved in the play and to participate in the action. These Saturday performances were open to members of the public, both children and adults. The performance lasted approximately one hour. The production was devised by Sarah Gordon and directed by Christopher Geelan, original creators of the Orange Tree Theatre's Primary Shakespeare Project in 1989. Sarah Gordon and Christopher Geelan are now Artistic Directors of the Young Shakespeare Company.

The final production in the Orange Tree's Spring/Summer season is this double bill entitled Women On Women By Women, comprising The Women of Troy by Euripides (trans. Don Taylor) and This Cookie May Contain Nuts by Tracy Hitchen. Jo Combes and Joyce Branagh, Trainee Directors at the Orange Tree Theatre, have assisted with all main house productions this year - this double bill is a showcase of their work. The Women of Troy is directed by Jo Combes, in a modern translation by Don Taylor. Jo has previously directed Twelfth Night, A Doll's House, Cabaret, The Tender Mercies, The White Devil and Yerma. At the end of the Trojan War, the city of Troy lies in ruins. Despite the war and destruction there is fresh torture to come for the women of Troy as they lament their losses and learn which of the Greek leaders has chosen them as his trophy. This Cookie May Contain Nuts, is directed by Joyce Branagh and is the second play in the double bill. Joyce has directed Hamlet (Cork Opera House and Tivoli Theatre Dublin), Macbeth (Hens and Chickens) Woyzek (Dublin fringe) and The Tender Mercies (Bird's Nest) with her company Larks Theatre. Her past work with Tracy Hitchen includes directing Fred and Ginger (Baron's Court), I Don't Sweat Much For A Fat Lass, Gillette Man and Handbags (The Bird's Nest). This comedy was specially written for the Orange Tree Theatre. Watched on the World Wide Web, Ellie Battercock has perhaps found the perfect platform to find her perfect man, but is Moonshadow all that he appears? The double bill promises an evening of great contrasts, by two new directors. The two plays encompass a history of a woman's fortunes; from helplessness and dependence in The Women of Troy to independence and choice in This Cookie May Contain Nuts.

Hot-foot from the Stephen Joseph Theatre comes part two of the Orange Tree's opening collaboration with Scarborough, a new play from the author of Nice Dorothy and The Last Thrash. Retired Matthew sits happily breakfasting on his Richmond patio when interruptions from his niece June drive him to Kew Gardens and into the hands of a lovely young girl from Macedonia and a rat poison salesman called Tony. Meanwhile, in June's Help the Aged shop, Harold, an insecure bus driver, strives to help. The paintings of Constable and Millais somehow bring these five very different and lonely people together. But will the pursuit of private passions cause this disparate company to explode?

Two performances only of a specially commissioned comedy from the Stephen Joseph, Scarborough with the actors from Whispers Along the Patio. An errant Hollywood husband returns home for his daughters's wedding. He meets his wife for lunch under the gaze of perhaps the rudest waitress in Britain.

Two performances only of a specially commissioned comedy from the Stephen Joseph, Scarborough with the actors from Whispers Along the Patio. At her wedding a young girl finds herslef dancing with the vicar. They continue to meet at various isignificant events over the years and share the highs and lows of life and love.

1900: In a provincial city in Russia, Olga, Masha and Irina - three sisters - look forward with varying degrees of optimism to the future. It is Irina's "name day". Soldiers from the military barracks visit bringing with them Vershinin, their new battery commander. Natasha comes to the celebratory lunch and Andrey, the sisters' brother, asks her to marry him. As time passes, hopes, dreams, loves and lives are changed, fulfilled or shattered. And the move to Moscow remains as elusive as ever.

Co-production with the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. Unexpectedly widowed by an accident involving a bull and faulty deaf aids, Alice is befriended by Jimmy, her husband's business partner. As the years pass it needs all their determination and ingenuity to thwart the plans of Alice's children. They want to see their mother safely looked after in a residential home, so that they can carry on with their lives without any feelings of worry or guilt. Alice, though, has other ideas. Bernard Farrell is a leading Irish playwright and this production is the first professional presentation of his work in London. "Lovely, touching and funny....this is a play to savour", Irish Times. "Farrell's finest, most complete and fully realised play... rich in laughs and gorgeous sentiment" Sunday Tribune. "Sam Walters' lively, well cast production" , The Stage.

Shakespeare at Winedale, a group of 17 students from the University of Texas, perform Twelfth Night. This is the third successive year that Shakespeare at Winedale has performed at the Orange Tree. The production will be directed by Shakespeare at Winedale's Director, James Loehlin.

The London premiere of this highly praised one man show. 'The show is as witty as it is majestic ... beautiful to watch and is of high intellectual integrity' The Scotsman. On 26 January 1814 Edmund Kean burst upon the London theatre scene when he made his debut as Shylock at Drury Lane. He was an overnight sensation. Part one of Alister O'Loughlin's planned trilogy on the life of probably the greatest actor who ever lived takes us up to that first performance at Drury Lane. The performance lasts 90 minutes with no interval.

A celebration of the Orange Tree Theatre's musicals. Come and see the original casts singing songs from your favourite musicals from the last 30 years. Including numbers from Wild Wild Women, Nutmeg and Ginger, Flora - The Red Menace, The Rink and The Little Matchgirl.

Engaged was first produced in 1877, just before Gilbert's partnership with Arthur Sullivan began to flourish. This comedy is triumpahnt burlesque of a whole range of the conventions and stereotypes found in melodrama and in the sentimental and moralising comedies of the time. the play begins in Scotland, clsoe to Gretna Green, with wrecked trains, pretty girls and proposals of marriage. It ends up in London where everyone is confronted with the desperate desire to discover who is betrothed to whom and what the financial consequences of it all may be. Gilbertian wit and satire at its very best.

Deceit, intrigue, love, loyalty and treachery in 18th century London. This February Vaclav Havel leaves office as President of the Czech Republic. To celebrate his life and work we present the British premiere of his take on The Beggar's Opera.

An extraordinary thing happened on November 1st 1975. A privately invited audience of 300 found their way to a draughty hall in a Prague suburb to have their one and only chance between 1968 and 1989 of seeing a play by their future President. Audience, actors and author were elated, but when the secret police found out they were furious!

Havel has taken John Gay's play and characters and created his own unique world of deceit, treachery, love, loyalty and intrigue. There is no beggar and there are no songs, but there is Macheath still intending to have Lucy as well as Polly, while Peacham and Lockit struggle for power and the "ladies" of Diana's salon ply their trade.

“A fascinating and genuinely entertaining piece” Daily Telegraph

“It is highly entertaining... The plot is an ingenious cat's cradle of double-cross and triple-cross... The dialogue goes with a fine swing... So does Geoffrey Beevers' spirited production” Sunday Telegraph

“Havel highjacks Gay to present his own dramatic metaphor of the communist regime he so courageously opposed... Full of delightful wit... The increasingly complex plot evolved with great élan. Geoffrey Beevers directs a sprightly production” Daily Telegraph

“Havel is of course dizzyingly skilled at writing blackly comic hollow rhetoric… Havel blends enjoyment with critique” Financial Times

“Havel’s tale is a gripping insight into deception… It’s a warning of future dangers and yet more proof that the Czech Republic’s retiring president was and is a man to treasure” The Times

“This theatre’s loyalty to the playwright Vaclav Havel is beyond praise… Havel ingeniously turn’s Gay’s original play into a non-musical metaphor for the corrosion of the soul under communism” The Guardian 

"Anyone who wants to know why it is so easy for powerful people to abuse their fellow men should see this play." Milos Forman

After her husband's death, how will Bernarda Alba control her five sexually unfulfilled daughters as they come of age in a male dominated society, where hopes and desires must be silenced? The girls battle to break free, but can they escape their domineering mother and the repressive society that surrounds them before it is too late? Lorca's final masterpiece explores domestic fascism in Spain in 1936, challenging its wider social and political implications. The play powerfully portrays the position of women in society, in a way that continues to have enormous resonance for women today. Auriol Smith has long wanted to direct Lorca at the Orange Tree Theatre, feeling that the claustrophobic intensity of his plays would be conveyed beautifully in the enclosure and intimacy of the space. “Auriol Smith’s compelling production” , The Evening Standard. “I have never seen a revival of The House of Bernarda Alba in which the atmosphere of fear and loathing was so palpable. At the Orange Tree in Richmond the hatred emanating from the stage hits you with the ferocity of a southern Spanish heatwave… Director Auriol Smith, who has produced an acid-tongued new translation with Rebecca Morahan, handles the tragic collision between crushing smalltown imperatives and absolute biological needs with a remarkable attention to suffocating detail… As much is said here by what flickers across the women’s eyes as what passes their lips – acting of the highest order” The Daily Telegraph. “Auriol Smith's production turns out to be thoroughly gripping. It draws you into the claustrophobic world that Lorca created, and keeps you there”, The Sunday Telegraph. “The in-the-round intimacy of the Orange Tree perfectly suggests the inner sanctum of a typical Andalusian dwelling, complete with courtyard, lace-draped balcony and arches, here neatly realised by Julie Nelson’s clever design” The Evening Standard. “Rowena Cooper is excellent as the servant who provides a bridge between mother and daughters, and Paula Stockbridge suggests that the quietly desperate Angustias knows a truth that she will not admit. But it is Farleigh’s evening as she roars like a caged tiger, mad and very, very sad.” The Guardian.“Auriol Smith’s gripping production benefits from two powerfully truthful performances. Lynn Farleigh’s straight-backed Bernarda wields her silver-topped cane as an instrument of will-power and swift punishment, a figure of triumphant tyranny, delivering fierce diktats with relish; while as her emotional opposite, Rowena Cooper in the performance of the evening (and perhaps of her career) is the robust Poncia, earthly and outspoken, angry at a life spent in service, her expressive forefinger stabbing the air with bitter emphasis” What’s On Stage. “Auriol Smith’s powerful production of Federico García Lorca’s final play is ideal material for the claustrophobic confines of the Orange Tree’s theatre in-the-round and is superbly set by Julie Nelson’s spare design… All the performances are uniformly terrific… Another triumph for Sam Walters’ little gem of a producing house. I can’t recommend it too highly” What’s on Stage.

A double bill of short plays from the Orange Tree Trainee Directors. This summer the two trainees, David Roderick and John Terry, present a powerful and unusual double bill. It comprises the revival of a modern British classic by Wolf Mankowitz and the UK premiere of a Hungarian hit. The Hebrew Lesson, by Wolf Mankowitz. Directed by David Roderick. Set in Ireland in 1921, this is the deceptively simple story of a young revolutionary who seeks shelter from an elderly refugee. Separated by their very different backgrounds they are united in their fear of the outside world. In a moment of crisis a decision has to be made: to defend a principle through violent or pacific means? Exploring different cultures, languages and religions, this is a beautiful, evocative and poignant play that carries a powerful message about how to deal with conflict. Raised in London’s East End, Wolf Mankowitz was the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant. Known for his eclectic tastes and rather diverse body of work, Mankowitz often used his own experiences as source material for his writing. In his first novel, Make Me an Offer, he drew upon his first-hand knowledge as an antiques expert. Mankowitz was also heavily influenced by Yiddish folklore when writing his first screenplay A Kid for Two Farthings – a charming, semi-autobiographical series set in the Jewish quarter of London. An author, playwright, and scriptwriter, Mankowitz is well known for his work on the 1959 Cliff Richard film Expresso Bongo, which satirised the new rock ‘n’ roll scene. Mankowitz also wrote The Day the Earth Caught Fire, science fiction through the eyes of Fleet Street journalists, in which legendary former Daily Express editor Arthur Christiansen played himself. Among his other screenplays are Black Beauty, Treasure Island, Casino Royale, and early drafts of Dr. No.Unsent Letters by Andor Szilagyi. UK Premiere. Directed by John Terry. This is an extraordinary piece of Hungarian theatre, never before performed in English. Two characters repeatedly meet, fall in love, and part in a world of haunting noir and theatrical invention. Time is fluid as the play drifts through love, loss and missed opportunities beneath the light of a full moon on a station platform. Drawing disparate influences from film noir to folk circus, this play is a moving and eerie encounter with a playwriting culture rarely seen on the London stage. A diverse cast that includes an internationally renowned virtuoso accordion player create a production that is a true clash of cultures. 'Funny, enigmatic, poignant', The Hungarian Quarterly. Born in Hungary on the 29th of May 1955, Andor Szilágyi graduated in history education from the Teacher Training College of Eger. He then went on to complete a degree in journalism through the National Association of Hungarian Journalists. Among his different occupations, Szilágyi has worked as a journalist, broadcasting manager, freelance writer, dramaturg, and art director. A highly respected playwright and screenwriter, Szilágyi’s work has been very successful in Hungary and continues to gain international recognition. Among his published works are Unsent Letters – published first in Budapest (1994) and later in Hungarian Plays by The International Collection of Nick Hern Books, London 1996, and Shalim – a novel that has been re-published in Budapest, Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Italy. He has received many awards including ‘Szép Erno’ Award for playwriting in 1994 and 2nd Prize in the Hartley-Merrill International Screenwriting Prize in 2000 (USA). Most recently, Rose’s Song, written and directed by Szilágyi, received the award for ‘Best Screenplay’ at the 2003.

Public performances of Primary Shakespeare. This production is a 60-minute adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play aimed at 6-11 year olds. The Taming of the Shrew is the tale of Baptista’s two daughters, the beautiful Bianca and the uncontrollable Katherine, and their search for marriage. Baptista has declared that no one may court Bianca until the viciously ill-tempered Katherine is married. But who on earth will take Katherine’s hand in marriage? Petruchio, a brash young man from Verona, is determined to find a wife that will bring him wealth. He agrees to marry Katherine despite her shrewish demeanour. Petruchio sets out to “tame” his new bride while Lucentio and Hortensio, disguised in order to gain access to the fair Bianca, volley for her love! With numerous twists, turns, and bumps on the road to marital bliss, hilarity reigns as the newlyweds, Bianca, and the two suitors-in-disguise find themselves in one problematic predicament after another. We would like to invite you to join in the excitement of these charming and engaging public performances.

A marriage has been arranged. As the young woman awaits the arrival of her husband to be, her father suggests that, in order to gain a truthful impression of her lover she changes places with her maid. But what may her lover have arranged?Marivaux’ The Game of Love and Chance (1730) is his best known play. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) was the first to translate the play, although her version was not produced in England until 1988. Lady Mary, sometime Twickenham resident and sparring partner of Horace Walpole and Alexander Pope, is a literary figure of increasing importance. We will also be presenting three performances of work about her life. Auriol Smith will direct this mischievous, complicated and potentially dangerous quadrille of love. 'Recommended...A gem of a period piece...a theatrical find...a timeless appeal', Evening Standard. 'Charming and playful', The Guardian. 'The dialogue is crisp, the confusions are funny and the vindication of true love is neatly handled...in Auriol Smith's excellent production', Sunday Telegraph. 'The result is a wondrously light quardille of love and deception, given an enchanting revival by Auriol Smith and gorgeously costumed...deliciously played out...'The Stage.

In 1657 Parliament offered Oliver Cromwell the crown. Would his acceptance confirm the 1649 Revolution, or betray the first English Republic? Was Cromwell a democratic parliamentarian, a radical revolutionary, a religious fundamentalist, a military dictator, a typical English pragmatist – or all five? Why did this puritan love music, approve the first English operas and hire Andrew Marvell to write poetry for him? This eloquent and witty new play dramatises 17th century themes that are as modern and relevant today. Oliver Ford Davies first acted, directed and wrote for the Orange Tree in 1972, and his acting career has encompassed the David Hare Trilogy at the National Theatre - for which he won an Olivier Award - Kavanagh QC, Star Wars and King Lear at the Almeida. 'The great pleasure of the week was Oliver Ford Davies' King Cromwell, which covers a day in the life of the ailing Old Noll just as he's trying to decide whether to accept parliament's offer of the crown. His son Richard begs him not to, as he doesn't want to rule in his turn, as does his close friend Lady Lambert, who wants her husband to become Lord Protector on Oliver's death. There's the puzzling matter of trying to decode God's will in all this, and as if that wasn't enough for one day, he has to have a job interview with Andrew Marvell, someone's trying to assassinate him and his excitable pregnant daughter Bettie wants him to take the role of Jove in a newfangled thing called, cautiously, an 'op-er-a'. This is wonderful, unshowy acting (well, they are all Purtians); especially strong are Claudia Elmhirst as Bettie, Sean Baker as the bluff northcountryman Marvell, and Hugh Simon as the prissy secretary of state John Thurloe. Ford Davies is perhaps not enough of a hard bastard as Cromwell, but it's a magnificent performance all the same. The play is funny immensely moving ad full of still potent ideas.' The Independent on Sunday. “If good history plays offer a metaphor for the present, then Oliver Ford Davies's King Cromwell eloquently passes the test. It deals with, among many other things, the conflict between hereditary and elective principles and the constitutional problems of a second chamber. While being informative and entertaining, its main fault is that it is almost too full of retrospective irony. Ford Davies avoids narrative sprawl by compressing the action into a single day in Cromwell's life in 1657. Confined by illness and death-threats to Whitehall, Cromwell wrestles with Parliament's offer of kingship. Acceptance means that hereditary power will soon pass to his ineffectual, unsoldierly son, Richard. Endorsement of an elective system, however, implies that Colonel John Lambert will succeed and turn England into a permanent military dictatorship. Torn between these choices, Cromwell faces the failure of his dream of creating a true, god-fearing republic. The play's virtue is that it clarifies big issues without over-simplifying them, and conveys the endless paradoxes of Cromwell's character: he's an aesthetic puritan who has music constantly by him, a radical attached to property and social order, a believer who sometimes doubts God's beneficence. Ford Davies himself plays the title-role, under Sam Walters's guileful direction, with a moving sense of the melancholy underneath the rage. Sean Baker also does good work as the equivocating Hull poet, Andrew Marvell, and John Ashton makes a timely late appearance as the Leveller, Edward Sexby, to put the anti-Cromwellian arguments. As a play, it's not perfect, but it is streets ahead of the tushery and tat of TV historical drama.” Michael Billington, The Guardian.

Mary Elizabeth Braddon was a literary superstar of the Victorian era. Along with Wilkie Collins, she is credited with creating the ‘sensation’ novel. Braddon’s first bestseller, Lady Audley’s Secret sold over a million copies. In addition she wrote around 80 novels, plays, poems and countless short stories and even the libretto for an opera. She became a respected and respectable figure in late 19th century society. Her palatial home in Richmond became the setting for glittering soirees as the likes of Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle and E W Hornung came to call. Despite her success Braddon’s position was always threatened. Her past was littered with dark secrets which if fully revealed would destroy her reputation both as a writer and a society figure – secrets and rumours she had to keep hidden from her adoring public. Secrets and Rumours takes place after the death of her husband in 1895. Mary Elizabeth reflects on her life and its carefully hidden scandals. What would have happened if the truth had been told?

A Cabaret Cocktail of sweet and sour songs. Starring the fantastic cast of Me, Myself and I.

In association with the Duncan Grant in Twickenham exhibition at Orleans House Gallery the Orange Tree Theatre is staging a rare reading of the only play written by Virginia Woolf. This hilarious and unique farce was first penned in 1923 and revised in 1935 and is a comedy based on the antics of her great aunt, the famous Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. The original cast of the play included Virginia and Leonard Woolf, artist Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and Julian and Angelica Bell. Both the 1923 and 1935 versions of the play will be read.

Worth crossing London for..' What's On. For this year’s co-production with the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough we return to farce. This time pure English farce. Love’s a Luxury formed part of our 1987/88 Time Out award-winning season and Michael Billington wrote in The Guardian: “French farce is about lechery: British farce is about social panic. This one is a prime example of the genre filled with that peculiar native mixture of innocence and frenzy”. So we thought it time to bring this mayhem to the new theatre. The frenzy, including marital misunderstandings, female impersonation, a knobbly-kneed scoutmaster, pretty girls and the A.B.C.I.D – the Actor’s Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department, will be directed, somehow, by Sam Walters.

This year’s Orange Tree Theatre’s Trainee Directors Showcase is an exciting double bill of classic and contemporary theatre. Hippolytus: A middle-aged woman dying of a dark secret. A beautiful but chaste young man. A hot-headed husband, and a proud and jealous goddess.The stage is set for one of Euripides’ most powerful and gripping tragedies, a story of love, honour, and what happens when passion turns to revenge in the name of justice. The Little Years: 1950. Kate is 13. While her classmates gossip about boys and dream of the dance on Friday, Kate has her eyes on the stars. A science prodigy with ideas light years ahead of the curriculum, Kate rejects schoolwork and the company of her peers in favour of her own thoughts. Her school, baffled by her non-conformity and disrespect to teachers, excludes her. As Kate’s spark is gradually extinguished, her brother William emerges as one of the most celebrated writers of his generation. The Little Years is the story of the trail of possibilities life leaves in its wake, and the way our lives are touched by others. It is both hauntingly beautiful and refreshingly funny.

Actor, director and writer Granville Barker is one of the giants of 20th century British theatre and wrote this, his first play, in 1899 aged 22. Last produced by the RSC in 1975 this is a rare chance to see this intriguing and significant play. Carnaby Leete, a devious politician with a career in trouble, having married off one daughter to further his political ambitions, is now set to do the same with daughter number two. But Ann, standing on the threshold of the new century, looks at her sister, on the verge of divorce, and at her brother, who is regarded as having married beneath him, and decides to challenge the world she sees around her. **** The Guardian, **** The Times, *** The Financial Times. “Sam Walters has once again come up trumps by reviving Harley Granville Barker's first solo play ... Barker pins down a moment of social transition in an utterly new theatrical language ... The real delight lies in the rediscovery of a major play by what is, in effect, the National Theatre of Surrey”, The Guardian.

To celebrate Mr. David Garrick’s move to Hampton 250 years ago in 1754, we are presenting two special Sunday performances. Mr. RICHARD BRIERS will lead a distinguished cast to give a reading of The Irish Widow by Garrick in which an old man in pursuit of a young girl is held up, alas, to ridicule. An entirely ageist piece of work we fear which should not be allowed on today’s stages! Mr. DAVID TIMSON and Mrs. JOANNA WAKE plus children will appear in the interlude The Farmer’s Return from London. There will again be music from Mr. JEREMY BARLOWE and songs. And we will hear what others have to say about Mr Garrick as well as hearing more from the man himself. These evenings are in conjunction with the Hampton Riverside Trust, the Hampton Society and the Garrick’s Temple Volunteers. After each performance there will be a collection in aid of Garrick’s Temple.

A shocking new Australian play. ‘When you make an enemy of the United States, you’d better watch out. Sooner or later we will get you’ Paul Bremer, former US administrator of Iraq. An Australian academic, on the verge of being given tenure in his American university, suddenly finds himself in a nightmare world of Kafkaesque proportions. Isolated from his wife and friends, he has to deal alone with the violence that pursues him. Stephen Sewell is one of Australia’s foremost playwrights. His plays and films have won numerous awards and this dazzling play won the Green Room Award as the Best New Play of 2004. Myth demands answers to some of the most urgent questions of our times. ‘The drama of the piece’ says the author ‘revolves around the question of what is a democracy and what is it possible to ask and think about within a democracy.’ What happens when the Land of the Free states: ‘You’re either with us, or you’re against us’? Just where is the ‘war on terrorism’ going to take us? TimeOut Critics choice. “"Have you seen the play? No, but I've read the title." So ran an old joke about Peter Weiss's conveniently shortened Marat-Sade. The same gag could be applied to Stephen Sewell's play. Its title refers to a book written by its hero, an Australian academic at an Ivy League university. The hero, needless to say, can't get his book published. Happily, Sewell's play, feted in its native Australia, has made it here, where it galvanised its first-night audience. The play has such energy, vitality, anger and topicality. Sewell's play is both fictionally gripping and politically stimulating. With its echoes of Kafka, Oleanna and Pakula's The Parallax View, it shows Talbot being falsely accused of harassment, persecuted by an anonymous, pistol-packing heavy and professionally destroyed. What Sewell is clearly saying is that America is now a country in which the Socratic quest for truth is subordinate to iron certainty. And, although he underplays the surviving itch of dissent, he is right to point to "certain cultural similarities" between 1930s Germany and contemporary America. Physically, it's very well staged, in its equation of Talbot's academic office with a prison cell. Jonathan Guy Lewis as the beleaguered hero, Amanda Royle as his screenwriter wife and Julia Sandiford as a Chomsky-esque student are all first rate and, like it or not, the play sends you out into the night passionately arguing.”The Guardian.

For the festive season we present the London premiere of Monks' Mikado. The most famous of all Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, first performed in 1885, may be set in Japan but its satire is directed antirely at English subjects. With a little careful re-writing, the original bit of Gilbert's satire has been restored. But why on a cricket pitch? Chris Monks writes: 'The charcaters in the Mikado are trapped in a rule-ridden, pedantic and violent society. I found an equivalnet in the most English of rituals - the cricket match. Like the Japanese tea ceremony, cricket is so esoteric, the unitiated find it incomprehensible. The cricket establishment, from Lords to the most humble village team, adheres to a code of behaviour laid down in the far off days of empire. Its hierarchy is inscrutable; its rituals require a lifetime of study to fathom'.

In February 1990 in the theatre above the pub, we presented Geoffrey Beevers’ adaptation of George Eliot’s great novel, receiving stunning reviews, playing to full and enthusiastic houses and winning a Time Out Award. Those who remember it will surely relish a second opportunity to re-meet the idealistic Adam Bede, pretty Hetty Sorrel and the young squire, Dinah the Methodist preacher, the Poysers, the Reverend Irwine and many others. Whilstfor those who missed it, here is your chance to see an award-winning production that was created especially for the Orange Tree. "Exceptionally faithful, stripping it down to its bare essentials... Our attention is held by the strong story and the warmth of the performances" Time Out 'All the more praise, therefore, to Geoffrey Beevers for George Eliot's Adam Bede, his terrific adaptation of the novel for the Orange Tree Theatre... Nothing can detract from what is an extraordinary recreation of a lost Christian world.'Sunday Telegraph. 'Geoffrey Beevers' adaptation brings the novel vividly to life... The production is intimate and admirably unfussy.'Financial Times'Beautifully detailed production',What's On. 'It's the strength of the ensemble that lends the play its depth, such a first-rate cast doing more than ample justice to the novel, capturing all the flavour and pathos of the book superbly.'Rogues and Vagabonds. 'The standout performances come from Christopher Harper's Arthur and Daisy Ashford's Hetty.' The Stage. 'Warmth and humour are also provided by Peter Forbes and Tilly Tremayne in a variety of excellent supporting turns.'The Times.

‘Who is this book for? Who is it not for? It is for everybody who has felt from time to time that certain twinge of self-identity and sensed how easily, at any moment, one might lose it.’ The Times on Oliver Sack’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, 1985. The Man Who was inspired by the American ‘romantic’ neurologist Oliver Sack’s accounts of his most unimaginable patients. Created by leading theatre director Peter Brook, and Marie-Helene Estienne, it was first performed in English in Zurich before coming to the National’s Cottesloe Theatre in 1994. The Man Who is a fascinating and poignant study of what Brook calls ‘the valley of astonishment’ – the irrational, the incredible, and the phenomenal power - of the human mind. This production is directed by Jennie Scott, as part of her secondment to the Orange Tree Theatre from the MFA in Theatre Directing at Birkbeck University of London. It is supported by the Arts Council of England.

Trainee Director's Showcase. There are two sides to every separation. Mathew and Nina have been married for twelve years. Mathew is a successful publisher, he puts his work before family and he is always in control. His path is littered with the discarded souls of those who have tried to keep up. His side is written by Andrew Bovell, author of Holy Day, Who’s Afraid of the Working Class, Speaking in Tongues (turned into the film Lantana), and co-writer of Strictly Ballroom. Nina is a journalist who hasn't worked since the birth of their two children. When Mathew suggests she takes on the biography of the new 'Australian of the Year', she throws herself into the project with an all-consuming enthusiasm. Her side is written by Hannie Rayson, author of Hotel Sorrento (Australian Writers Guild Award), Life After George, Falling from Grace, Inheritance and Two Brothers. A play about sex, sacrifice and survival, of break-up and break-down, of falling in love and getting found out.''Jointly staged by Phoebe Barran and James Kyle Wilson, both products of the Orange Tree's trainee director scheme. They neatly solve the play's technical and emotional problems. And, even if Julia Webber's shrewd, maturely sexy Nina wins one's sympathy, Martin Ritchie effectively conveys the angst under Matthew's aggro. Andrew McDonald also gives a punchy performance as the Oz politician who has turned into a scourge of the corporate bullies.''The Guardian. ''Andrew McDonald gives a commanding portrayal... Julia Webber is specially good... There is real tension in the story and in a production as alert to the value of small props as to the surging pain of love and loss.''The Times. ''Beautifully staged... It's a fascinating idea, and new directors Phoebe Barran and James Kyle Wilson bring it across with verve, aided by an impressive cast. Martin Ritchie in particular lends the character of Mathew convincing depth.''Time Out. “Beautifully crafted by two of Australia’s most vibrant talents... The Orange Tree’s European premiere is directed with aplomb by Phoebe Barran and James Kyle Wilson, with an excellent, seven-strong cast.''What's On.

The Women of Lockerbie is set on 21 December 1995, the 7th anniversary of the day that the Pan Am 103 flight exploded over Lockerbie. The play deals with the depths of grief and hatred that terrorist acts create in those left behind. Madeline and Bill Livingston, whose 20 year old son was killed in the crash, have come to Scotland for the first time since their son’s death. Madeline is still inconsolable at the loss of her son whose body was never found. But the women of Lockerbie have also suffered tragedy and are prepared to confront the 'powers that be' to turn what was an act of hate into an act of love. A tragedy for our times. "Auriol Smith's production is garlanded with overwhelming scenes of pathos, thanks to superlative actors... all imbue the Women of Lockerbie with heartfelt poignancy" Evening Standard. "Colette O'Neil is compelling as the defiant Olive... Endowed with character, poetry and a core of touching emotion" Time Out. "Auriol Smith's production is powerfully performed. Lisa Eichhorn and John Hudson are both impressive" The Guardian. "Catches the grim mood of the moment better than anything I've yet seen on the subject of 9/11 and its aftermath... Almost unbearably moving... Brings a tear to the eye" The Telegraph. "Auriol Smith's fine production contains many strong performances... Lisa Eichhorn and Colette O'Neil stand out" Financial Times. "Concerned with matters seldom aired in the theatre nowadays. What is mischance, what is fate? How to exorcise a great evil? The answer of the Lockerbie women was to 'get love out of this'. Can't think of a better one myself" The Times. "Presented on a set of rocks and streams, Auriol Smith's production conjures up the right grave dignity of atmosphere, and the performances are strong" The Independent.

Monkey’s Uncle is a comedy (perhaps a farce) about the mayhem caused when our animal instincts come into conflict with our civilised veneers. The play begins with the great farceur Georges Feydeau struggling to cope as his latest plot and his hectic life begin to merge, and then spins furiously forward into the 21st Century.Troubled marriages, rampant affairs, professional jealousy and an organ grinder’s monkey are some of the ingredients in David Lewis’ new play which was inspired by the Orange Tree’s wonderful doorless French farces and is written specially for our theatre."Delightful farce about farce... Hilarious. The play pinches gleefully from Feydeau... David Leonard plays Feydeau with dash and desperation, Alister Cameron is a delightfully uptight police inspector and Stuart Fox is particularly funny as the jittery, lust-wracked doctor." Financial Times. "Dizzying, break-neck new farce... Lewis has painstakingly constructed a proper, old-fashioned farce and Sam Walters' tightly orchestrated cast pull it off well. Alister Cameron and Stuart Fox in particular have the audience howling with laughter... It's well crafted, tight, and undeniably funny" Time Out. "Blissfully funny... acted with great aplomb and precision by a strong cast led by David Leonard’s urbane but inwardly floundering Feydeau... a manic delight" The Times.

In the middle of his play, just as he had got his characters wound up and ready for the plot to take off, Retoration playwright John Vanbrugh put down his pen halfway through a sentence and never wrote another word. James Saunders has taken this play about a country MP and his family coming to London, who then find themselves caught up in the wicked ways of the city, and has created the most sophisticated of Restoration comedies for our times - sex and marriage 1700 style with 20th century hindsight. This delightful comedy, which was a huge success in the old theatre in 1986, is now revived as the central part of our tribute to the late James Saunders.

In the middle of his play, just as he had got his characters wound up and ready for the plot to take off, Retoration playwright John Vanbrugh put down his pen halfway through a sentence and never wrote another word. James Saunders has taken this play about a country MP and his family coming to London, who then find themselves caught up in the wicked ways of the city, and has created the most sophisticated of Restoration comedies for our times - sex and marriage 1700 style with 20th century hindsight. This delightful comedy, which was a huge success in the old theatre in 1986, is now revived as the central part of our tribute to the late James Saunders.

James Saunders was a master of the short play and these two very different plays show him at the height of his powers. Bye Bye Blues is the first play that James Saunders wrote for the Orange Tree. It is about three couples whose secure lifestyles and sense of liberty and freedom are threatened by a minor car accident. “It is quite simply a stunner” said the Evening Standard of our 1973 premiere. Directed by Sam Walters. Double Double was first performed in 1995 to complement our production of Saunders's final play Retreat. It is set in a bus garage where five actors play ten parts as drivers and conductors struggle not only with timetables and a lost bus, but also with their own lives. It is a total joy. Directed by Peter Forbes. Presented as part of the Celebration of James Saunders.

In 1955, Philip Larkin, one of England’s most famous post-war writers, arrives in Hull as the University Librarian. Over the next 30 years his life will be dominated by three women. Oliver Ford Davies is reprising his role as the 'Don Juan of Hull' and the play is again directed by Alan Strachan. "An absorbing look at a contradictory personality, a loner who sought love eagerly enough but recoiled from any of its messier implications and responsibilities, a man whose selfishness was leavened by a dry, deadpan wit that gives some idea as to why his lovers were so fond of him. Brown draws on Larkin’s published prose and the best jokes are his. He also acknowledges that Larkin’s beautifully melancholy poetry was bound up with a sexual strangeness and social prejudice. Alan Strachan, who directed the 1999 premiere of Brown’s play at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, directs this welcome revival. Back, too, is Oliver Ford Davies in a terrific performance as Larkin. Probably less prickly than the original, Ford Davies is still a rumpled, unsentimental presence: sardonic, guardedly tender and amusingly baffled to find that he has become a bespectacled “Don Juan in Hull”. Equally strong are Carolyn Backhouse as the sharp-tongued Monica, Larkin’s equal when it came to a love of literature and drink, and Jacqueline King as the no- nonsense Betty. And Amanda Royle is wonderfully touching as Maeve, a devout Roman Catholic often hurt by their relationship, who inspired some of Larkin’s most touching love poems. Brown offers an expert distillation of Larkin’s life and work. Strachan turns it into poignant drama." The Times. "Oliver Ford Davies gives an achingly real portrayal of Larkin in this little gem of a production. He thoroughly embodies the paradox of the self-absorbed grump who got up every day thinking about death, yet had a lively wit and an unaccountably successful way with women...It's huge credit to both Brown and director Alan Strachan that an analysis of an ultimately selfish arrangement never feels one-dimensional. Carolyn Backhouse as Monica and Jacqueline King as Betty are women who give as good as they get. And Amanda Royle wins the heart with her quiet, fluttery Maeve." Time Out. This is the London premiere of the play that won the TMA Best New Play Award in 2000 when it was premiered at Alan Ayckbourn's Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

In 1946 Rebecca West, celebrated writer and journalist, arrives in Nuremberg to report on the world’s first ever war-crimes trial. There she is witness to a young US lawyer who faces the most difficult cross examination of his life - because, although Hjalmar Schacht may not have been a mass murderer, he was the economist who made Hitler's Third Reich work. Is he guilty? Behind the official pursuit of justice there lurks a far more complicated tale of political intrigue, moral compromise and fatal betrayal. Rebecca West lived in Richmond until the age of 14, and was described in 1954 by Kenneth Tynan as “the best journalist alive”. Among her many books, fiction and non-fiction, are A Train of Powder and The Meaning of Treason. "Kenneth Jupp's play, dealing with the Nuremberg Trials, makes fascinating viewing... The cross-examination of Schacht is riveting...Worth seeing in Auriol Smith's taut, controlled production." The Guardian. "Fascinating play... Julia Watson's captivating Rebecca West... Schacht (is) played with devastating hauteur and barbed irony by Charles Kay." The Independent. "Kenneth Jupp's play about the 1945 Nuremberg trials, in which Nazi war leaders were tried for crimes against humanity, comes to a shocking climax. Auriol Smith's evocative production... packs both an emotional and cerebral punch. Schacht, magnificently played by Charles Kay... the chilling force of Tosca's Kiss." Evening Standard. "Steven Elder brings a wounded quality to Morton, Julia Watson a warmth to West, David Yelland a smooth pragmatism to Biddle, and Charles Kay a chilly arrogance to Schacht....The play hits home emotionally when a cowering, naked Tom imagines the horror of the death-camp gas chambers." The Times. "A powerful play... Julia Watson and David Yelland give strong and impressive performances... getting directly to the quick of the moral issues at hand." Time Out.

The Madras House, regarded by many as Barker’s best, is a mighty play. Written in 1910 against a background of the suffrage movement, the play is about sex, idealism and power, and deals with the changing and developing role of women at the beginning of the last century. The action moves from the Huxtable household with its six, trapped, unmarried daughters, to the drapery emporium, where the “live-in” system provides a different prison and where mannequins, who speak no English, are prodded and pulled as they parade fashions to delight the idle rich. Throughout the play weave the figures of Constantine and Philip Madras. Constantine, the designer whose flair created the Madras House, has now retired and converted to Islam, while his son Philip is eager to sell his inherited empire and find a new life and a different way forward with his wife. Harley Granville Barker was one of the giants of twentieth century theatre and the Orange Tree has always championed his work. The Theatre presented the world premieres of his final two plays, and in 2004 we opened our season with the critically acclaimed The Marrying of Ann Leete. Ours is the first production of The Madras House since the Edinburgh Festival’s Barker retrospective in 1992. ''Cracking production of The Madras House... You can't mistake its wit, intelligence and sudden moments of deep feeling...Memorably captures the play's witty Shavian debate and sudden shafts of piercing emotion. Richard Durden is both craggily charismatic and hypnotically plausible as the former fashion designer turned Muslim, while Jan Carey captures all the wan despair of his abandoned wife.Timothy Watson is outstanding as their chilly, idealistic son...and there's strong support from Jacqueline King, Octavia Walters, Catherine Hamilton, John Chancer and Mark Frost. This is an admirable revival of a rich and fascinating play” The Telegraph.''Fascinating critique of Edwardian society and its exploitation of women... Sam Walters's articulate, beautifully acted production. The vital link in The Madras House's episodic scheme is Timothy Watson's fine, bleakly becalmed Philip Madras... Philip's father, Constantine emerges in Richard Durden's suavely duplicitous performance as the embodiment of the sexual hypocrisy, cruelty and marital subterfuge that his son avoids. Worth viewing.'' The Evening Standard. ''Durden’s Constantine adds a surprising originality to the play’s many fine qualities. He is suave, sophisticated, articulate, sensual, as much the male chauvinist as an Afghan warlord'' The Times.''The pleasure of this 1910 play lies in seeing Granville Barker comprehensively air the question of sexual equality. The excellent Timothy Watson as the coldly reformist Philip and Catherine Hamilton as his neglected wife'' The Guardian. ''A high-precision production played with elegance, clarity, an unerring sense of the period and a sensitive but ruthless understanding of character... Nearly 100 years on, this still grips you'' Sunday Times. ''Sam Walters' production of Harley Granville Barker's 1910 play is a terrific achievement. There's a profusion of wonderfully ambigious characters - all brought to splendid, convincing life by Walters' cast. It's a demanding play but one that richly rewards careful attention'' Time Out. ''Led by a fine, brooding performance from Timothy Watson... The play ignites into dazzling debate that is still remarkably resonant'' Financial Times. Designed by Tim Meacock, lighting by John Harris and Dan Last.

Programme 1 of the Shaw shorts centres around war and conflict. In Augustus Does His Bit, (directed by Toby Frow), Lord Augustus, sent to Little Pifflington to do his bit for the war effort, finds that rings are run around him. While O’Flaherty VC, (directed by Adam Barnard), may be a wonderful recruiting example for his commanding officer, but if his mother finds out that he has been fighting for the English instead of against them then our “hero” is in trouble. And in Press Cuttings, (directed by Adam Barnard), set during the disturbances created by the women’s suffrage movement, the only way that Prime Minister Balsquith can get from 10 Downing Street to meet with General Mitchener is by putting on a dress, shrieking “Votes for Women” and chaining himself to the War Office railings. ''Here, as part of the Orange Tree’s Shaw season, is an unusual and pleasurable opportunity to enjoy some of the dramatist’s sparky short pieces. With their broad characterisation and farcical comedy, this trio of miniatures reveals a playful Shaw poking fun at the idiocies of the ruling classes. The first triple bill in a set of two, it comprises a pair of wartime satires that, though absurdly funny, reveal terrifying imbecilities at military and governmental high level; and an earlier piece, 1909s Press Cuttings, in which the Prime Minister is beleaguered by the Suffragette movement while hostilities escalate in Europe. The supposed British virtues of stiff upper lip and valour in adversity are slyly set off against assertions that courage is merely a product of ignorance, and that English gentlemen are not, as Shaw’s bumbling Prime Minister Balsquith (a hybrid of Asquith and Balfour) puts it, “brought up to use their brains”. The plays are full of insubordinate young privates and upper-crust doltish top brass. In Augustus Does his Bit, Augustus Highcastle, sent home from the Front following various embarrassing blunders, attempts to run a recruitment drive in the backwater of Little Pifflington. Distracted by the lack of fresh bread rolls following the internment of the local German baker, by his own fine waxed moustache and by any passing pretty face, Augustus is hardly a safe pair of hands for the military secrets for which he is responsible. Meanwhile, in O’Flaherty VC, a young Irish recruit recently awarded the Victoria Cross admits he has no idea what the war is about, and that his mother, a committed Irish patriot, is under the impression that he is fighting against the English. Press Cuttings is richly ridiculous, with Balsquith dressing in drag to fox hordes of militant women, while the only solution his military chief Mitchener (a dig at Kitchener) can offer to every conceivable problem is to “shoot ’em down”. Toby Frow and Adam Barnard’s productions practically dance with wit, and are acted with rough-round-the-edges relish by cast members from the theatre’s current admirable revival of Major Barbara. Inevitably, these pieces don’t offer the complexity or dramatic sophistication of a full-length Shaw, but each one is as emphatic as a pistol shot — short, but extremely sharp.'' The Times

Reading. The black sheep of the family, the rebel minister, his pretty wife and General Burgoyne in the American War of Independence. A melodramatic delight. Presented as part of the Shaw Festival.

Reading. A chronicle play that takes us from Baudricourt’s eggs to Joan’s execution and beyond. One of Shaw’s most popular plays. Presented as part of the Shaw Festival.

Reading. King Magnus outwits his Labour Government, relaxes in the arms of his mistress, but then the American ambassador arrives with an extraordinary proposal. Of course a constitutional monarch who feels powerless does have options: “I can abdicate…I shall seek a parliamentary seat…it is my intention to offer myself to the Royal Borough of Windsor as a candidate at the forthcoming General Election”. Presented as part of the Festival of Shaw.

The London premiere of Chris Monks' fantatsic 're-imagined' the Pirates of Penzance. Young Frederic finally free of his apprenticeship to a band of inept pirates, falls in love with mabel, the beautiful daughter of a major general. Unfortunately, the Pirate King and the nursery maid he scorned take advantage of Frederic's sense of duty to keep him from enjoying his newfound happiness for long. Chris Monks, who two years ago gave us 'as good a Mikado as you could hope to see' (The Guardian), returns to the Orange Tree with a new look The Pirates of Penzance: a tale of duty, misunderstanding and revenge, with a Mafiosi makeover! Monks manages to be both excitingly innovative and at the same time to delight G & S aficionados.

All life's a struggle between people...the only thing is to have the rules of the game and keep them. The Hillcrists have owned their land for centuries. The Hornblowers are newly rich business men. The gloves come off when those who want to protect and preserve take up arms against those who want to develop and build. A fine dramatic play by a prolific playwright, who is perhaps better known as a great novelist. John Galsworthy’s first play, The Silver Box, was premiered in 1906 in a production by Granville Barker at the Royal Court. But his first big commercially successful play was The Skin Game in 1920. Galsworthy was profoundly disturbed by what he witnessed during his time in a French hospital in the First World War and in The Skin Game, which is not on the surface about war at all, he deals with the consequences that arise when those who hold differing, entrenched positions come into conflict.The cast includes Clive Francis as Hornblower and Geoffrey Beevers as Hillcrist. 'In Sam Walters's confident production...the Orange Tree demonstrates once again how well theatre-in-the-round lends itself to intricately observed emotional acting.' The Sunday Telegraph. 'Compelling viewing. Hugely recommended' Evening Standard – Critic’s Choice. 'Another fine rediscovery....Sam Walters directs with understandable relish and this rare, gripping revival comes highly recommended' The Daily Telegraph. 'The Orange Tree’s theatre-in-the-round seating arrangement has rarely been so well used as in the magnificent auction scene in which the neighbours go hell for leather to ruin one another.' Time Out. Sam Walters' production catches perfectly the high moral-ironic tone, and there's a first class performance from Cilve Francis as Hornblower' The Sunday Times. 'This is a surprisingly angry and vehement play that, in Sam Walters' punchy revival, gets excellent performances.' The Guardian 'This engrossing, intelligent production by Sam Walters demonstrates that there’s not only moral ferocity but theatrical fire in Galsworthy yet' The Times.

Nan by John Masefield is a world away from the usual conception of Edwardian drama. It is set in 1810 on a small tenant farm in a village by the river Severn, where Nan lives with her uncle and his wife. Nan’s father has been hanged for stealing a sheep, but tonight there is to be party where there will be dancing to the violin of Gaffer Pearce, and the possibility of love is in the air. John Masefield is primarily known as a poet, he became the Poet Laureate in 1930, but this play, first directed by Granville Barker in 1908, is an enormously powerful play, a peasant tragedy of Greek proportions. A discovery not to be missed. Why on earth has this play been neglected for so long?....I doff my cap to Auriol Smith and her cast for bringing this re-discovery to such finely textured life.The Daily Telegraph. Auriol Smith's atmospheric revival proves immensely actable’ The Guardian. ‘Profoundly moving….this is undoubtedly a valuable rediscovery’. The Evening Standard.

10 year old Andrea used to live happily with her family at Mulberry Cottage: Andy, Mum, Dad…and Radish, who lives in Andy’s pocket and shares all her secrets. But then it all went wrong: Mum went to live with Bill and his kids and Dad went off with Carrie and her twins. And Andy? Well, she was expected to shuttle between the two – living out of a suitcase. The Suitcase Kid is a funny and touching story of how Andy comes to terms with this strange new life.Vicky Ireland, former artistic director of the Polka Theatre, is a renowned director of Jacqueline Wilson’s much-loved stories. A play for children and families. "Ireland has brought her customary inventiveness to the staging using bunraku-style puppets to represent the younger kids and ingenious sideways leaps into snowscapes, jungle drums and a blobby white baby as a ghostly threatening figure - plus a dream wedding party for Radish." British Theatre Guide. "Andy's dilemma is one faced by thousands of kids, and in Vicky Ireland's lively and engaging adaptation you find yourself seeing it from all sides" The Stage.

It is the Second World War, the charismatic Member of Parliament, Colonel Michael Wentworth, has been reported dead in action. His wife Diana is left having to adapt to a new situation. But the colonel returns. He will expect to find things as they were, but the years between have intervened. The author of Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and The Birds has written a powerful and pertinent play that ran for over 600 performances in London in 1945 and was made into a film with Michael Redgrave and Valerie Hobson." I suddenly realised my life doesn't belong to him any more, it's mine, I can do what I like with it......that sudden sense of freedom - almost as if the years had rolled away and I was young again.""Michael Lumsden as Diana's new love and Timothy Carlton as an emollient Tory bigwig, are first-rate." The Guardian. "Caroline Smith's production is taut and impressively acted, with Karen Ascoe's Diana engaged in an internal battle between desire and duty, and Mark Tandy as the disillusioned Colonel behaving like a bitter bully and despising himself for it. ...A family drama of substance." The Times. 'Lady of the manor Diana Wentworth is played with impeccable poise by Karen Ascoe' The Stage.

Afternoon production, aimed at teenagers. Tara and Stacey do everything together - clubbing, fighting and skiving off school. The only difference between them is their sex lives - and the rumours about Stacey begin to worry Tara. When Tara starts putting pressure on Stacey to sleep with Shaun, Stacey faces some tough questions - but when things go badly wrong, it is Tara who has to find an answer. The play was first performed at the Orange Tree in the Room in 1998.

Fanny Burney is famous - as a novelist and as a woman of letters and as a participant in the literary circles of the day. Yet she also wrote plays and our production of The Woman Hater will be, incredibly, the British premiere of her 1802 play! Jilted on the verge of marriage, Sir Roderick spurns all contact with all women. The woman who jilted him, wooed with verses by another, became Lady Smatter and is, she feels, the centre of literary life, peppering her every sentence with misremembered quotations. Sir Roderick has severed realtions with his sister Eleonora becasue she presumed to marry Wilmot, Lady Smatter's brother. that marriage has now foundered over suspected adultery. Years have now passed, children have grown up and heirs need to be found. In this world of antagonism and suspicion is it possible for love to blossom and hate to wither?

Set in 1950s Dublin, Next Door's Baby is an earthy tale of feuding mothers, jealousy, and family secrets. As a Bonny Baby competition deepens the rift between the neighbouring Hennessys amd O'Briens, we learn nothing in either tiny terraced house is quite as it seems. As a premiere production of a witty, poignant show with lovely songs, written by husband and wife team. Next Door's Baby is for anyone who ever had a family.

Trifles is, perhaps, Glaspell's masterpiece. In the aftermath of a death, possibly a murder, the authorities of law and order investigate, but it is the two wives, accompanying their husbands, who deduce the most from the trifles in the kitchen as their men go about their important business. This play is a gem. One of the best short plays ever written. Supressed Desires, written with her husband George Cram Cook, takes a very funny look at the then new vogue of Freudian analysis with hilarious results. The Outside is set in a disused life-saving station, now belonging to Mrs Patrick as a refuge from life, a sanctuary on the edge of existence. But when the former life savers return with a body to be revived, the owner and her companion are forced to re-assess life on the edge. "The most original of these early works." - Christopher Bigsby.

Public performance of Primary Shakespeare production. Suitable for families and Shakespeare lovers of all ages.

Kings and Queens has long delighted audiences with its scintillating picture of the monarchy over the ages. In this performance, Isla Blair and Julian Glover are accompanied by the mulit-talented Stefan Bednarczyk and by Anne Harvey who compiled the programme. This popular staged version of the 1932 classic has been presented at the National Theatre and many arts festivals.

Vaclav Havel: ex-president of the Czech Republic, 20th century political hero, and celebrated playwright.

In the year preceding the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, the Orange Tree Theatre was proud to welcome Havel for a private gala performance of Leaving; it was the first time he has seen one of the Orange Tree Theatre's productions of his plays.

Ex-president Havel, his wife Dagmar and his entourage were greeted by Sam Walters and the staff of the Orange Tree Theatre before dining at local restaurant Bacco with members of the Czech Embassy. Following the evening performance, the Czech ambassador gave a speech in honour of Vaclav Havel and Sam Walters after which the playwright thanked and praised the actors. Guests enjoyed drinks and food at a reception sponsored by the Czech Embassy.

The audience included the Mayor of Richmond upon Thames, Lord and Lady Attenborough, Sir Trevor McDonald, MPs Susan Kramer and Vincent Cable, and Ian Hislop (reviewing the play for Newsnight Review).

This very special evening will undoubtedly go down in Orange Tree Theatre and Richmond - history.

Written in the 1970s, the Mountain Hotel houses a motley group of guests striving to live with each other. Among them a blocked writer, a sentimental Russian Count, the card playing Dlask, the football playing Tetz, and Vilem Pechar sunbathing on the grass. There's Rachel whose life appears to revolve around knitting and sex, Vilem's wife ministering to his infidelities and Liza coping with the count. Two of the guests look on in silence. The hotel staff has problems too; and five of the men are called Joseph. Mountain Hotel is directed by Sam Walters.

In Audience, (directed by Geoffrey Beevers) the first of the Vanek plays, Vanek is working in a brewery (as Havel did) and finds himself summoned to meet his boss. Might there be a better job on offer, where he will not have to handle heavy barrels of beer? But might there be a catch? Who exactly is going to be doing who a favour? And just how much beer is Vanek expected to consume before he finds out?

Political shenanigans as an election approaches, honours for sale, local councillors and putuative MPs changing parties from Conservative to Liberal and back again and even fear of a minimum wage all feature in this delightful 1913 comedy.

Mary Whichello, the leader of society in a middle sized manufacturing town, is distinctly put out when her husband's main rival Thomas Bodsworth is knighted for his services to the local community. Drastic measures are required.

A dinner party at the home of a young solicitor, anxious to make his way and marry Mary's sisters, provides an ideal opportunity, especially when Lady Bodsworth presents such a sitting target.

The events of the night disrupt the whole of Warkinstall for months and years to come and even reverberate to Westminster.

Alan is an American Public Relations guru. He knows how to win friends and influence people. He knows how to seduce women. He has worked for George Bush (1 and 2) and now works for Big Oil.

At a charity dinner for the rainforests, he has met and fallen for Grace, a lifelong environmental activist. Is love possible or is the divide too great?

And when a group of friends gather in Alan's pristine New York penthouse will an 'intervention' for Grace's alcoholic brother, a former Presidential hopeful, help or hinder their relationship?

A new and topical comedy by the author of Monkey's Uncle and Sperm Wars.

This is the story of a small French cosmetics company with a popular suntan lotion at the centre of its business.

But when a young and beautiful princess, dying of skin cancer, agrees to be interviewed regularly on television during the final weeks of her life, sales plummet.

Staff are under pressure. Workers strike. Companies fall. This is the story of growth, collapse and re-growth and its effect on all concerned.

20 actors in an extraordinary play about global capitalism, by one of France's leading writers.

Michel Vinaver, who was recently nominated for two Moliere awards, first wrote A La Renverse - Factors Unforeseen - in 1979. In 2006 the play was completely revised in a workshop and then presented in Paris in this new version.

Trainee Directors Showcase production.

There are now six Artistic Directors of major UK theatres who began their careers at the Orange Tree Theatre. These are the directors of the Hampstead Theatre, The Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, Regents Park Open Air Theatre, The Traverse Theatre Edinburgh, The Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Southwark Playhouse.

Sing to Me Through Open Windows, by Arthur Kopit. Directed by Andy Brunskill.

'Fear. Remember that word. You think you know what it means but you never do'.

On the first day of spring each year Andrew visits the isolated home of Ottoman Jud, a passe magician, and his helper, Loveless, who is dressed as a clown. When he gets there he is offered tea, conversation, magic and the opportunity to witness an impromptu circus act.

Written 50 years ago and not produced in the UK until now, this is a dream-like exploration into the loss of childhood magic and life's transitions.

'Astonishingly sophisticated...a mood mixing the everyday and the elegiac', Reviewsgate. 'The play gathers to a head of elegaic melancholy', Theatreworld.

‘Open and enticing', Live in London.

The Private Ear, by Peter Shaffer. Directed by David Siebert

'It's not every day you invite a girl to dinner, is it? Let's be honest. You go to hundreds of concerts, but you don't usually pick up a girl and invite her home, do you? So what gives?'

It's 1962. Bob is a shy young man with a life revolving around his beloved stereo and record collection. But this evening in his shabby flat he nervously awaits the arrival of Doreen for his first dinner date. To help with the cooking and the conversation, he has also invited his 'chic' and more experienced workmate Ted. Bob wants to impress, but will Ted, mushroom soup, rose wine and Benjamin Britten do the trick?

'Ultra-realist rendition...impeccably realised...deftly done', Time Out.

'A well observed, strongly retro production…a welcome, well cast revival', British Theatre Guide.

'On this evidence, the play deserves a full revival with its other half The Public Eye,' WhatsOnStage.

Photos by Robert Day.

It is 18 years since Alison Stanhope, the country's foremost poet, died.

Now the house must be sold. But the house holds secrets. Is it right for the family to protect itself and its past or does Alison belong to everyone? Did Alison sacrifice the man she loved for the sake of her family's reputation? And who do such sacrifices benefit?

The struggles in the play are set in America in 1899, on the cusp of the 20th century in which very different values will come to prevail.

Inspired by the life and work of Emily Dickinson, this play won Susan Glaspell the 1931 Pulitzer Prize and our production develops our relationship with the author after productions of The Verge, Inheritors and the recent Glaspell Season, which included the hugely successful Chains of Dew.

'Jo Combes's immaculate production...like all the best American drama, it combines acute understanding of the dynamics of family life with an ability to pierce the heart,' The Guardian.

'Terrific play...Jo Combes's excellent production', The Times.

'Glaspell's play is a haunted house alive with hushed intensity', TimeOut.

'The cast are near pitch-perfect... a family drama that pulses with subtle, shifting dynamics', WhatsOnStage.

'Alison's House is a brilliant play and the Orange Tree's stylish, understated revival is more than a match for it', Richmond and Twickenham Times.

'Even-handed and humane, Alison's House is another timely and thought-provoking find from The Orange Tree', London Theatre Blog.

Photos by Robert Day.

This show is very special for the Orange Tree. We produced it in the summer of 1975. It packed the room above the pub and, in the days before advanced booking, created queues of 100s up Clarence Street and into Parkshot. We brought it back for Christmas. It transferred into the West End. We revived it in 1989. The time has come to produce it in the theatre.

The king of a semi-barbaric kingdom builds a new arena. He needs a big event to open with. When his search bears fruit it causes heartache for the beautiful princess.

The music and lyrics, written by the same team who wrote Wild Wild Women, are stunning. This is a Christmas show to die for.

Photos by Robert Day.

Set on three floors of a crumbling house - a reportedly haunted former brothel - Taking Steps follows the lives of its eccentric occupants over the course of a frantic 24 hours.

A builder, who has leased his house to Roland, a hard-drinking business tycoon, now wants to sell it to him to survive. And Roland wants to buy. But with a wife who is attempting to leave him, a brother-in-law who sends everyone to sleep when he talks, and a lawyer who manages to get into all the wrong beds, complications and confusions inevitably ensue...

Alan Ayckbourn's Private Fears in Public Places played at the Orange Tree on its way to New York. This is the first production he will have directed especially for the Orange Tree.

'Ayckbourn's production is an absolute delight' The Times.

'Riotously funny farce' The Guardian. (Number 1 in the week's Top 5 Theatre productions).

'If you're looking for belly laughs and the ludicrous, Taking Steps will deliver.' Evening Standard.

'A bullseye of dazzling craft and rueful comic invention...the funniest, saddest show in London.' Sunday Express.

'Seriousness is undercut, prodded and poked – yet never discarded...This production shows that farce can be more than funny', Financial Times.

'Comedy bliss.' WhatsOnStage.

Photos by Robert Day.

Public performance of Primary Shakespeare production.

One of Shakespeare's most energetic, exciting and rousing plays, Henry V is brought to life by just four actors in a special hour-long production.

After his accession to the throne, King Henry V is considering asserting his right to rule France as well as England. A scornful gift of tennis balls from the Prince of France spurs him on, and England finds itself embroiled in battle. Betrayal, loyalty, fear and bravery take centre stage as the two countries fight for victory. Not only a story of great drama, Henry V includes one of Shakespeare's silliest scenes.

True to Shakespeare's text, our Family Shakespeare production will excite and entertain Shakespeare lovers of all ages. Suitable for age 4 +.

The eldest Mortimore, a brewer, has died. His estranged siblings gather to divide the spoils. But there is no will and an illegitimate daughter.

Guilt, envy and greed jostle for prominence as a large middle class family fight, with whatever weapons are at their disposal, for what they feel is their rightful and much needed inheritance.

In this 1908 play Pinero moves away from the London society of his earlier successes, like The Second Mrs Tanqueray, to the small town politics, tensions and sensitivities of a provincial town. 'Mr A.W. Pinero's latest and finest play, The Thunderbolt is without doubt the most brilliant of all Mr Pinero's plays' wrote the correspondent of the New York Times.

'Sam Walters's charming production of Pinero's 1908 family drama proves that he remains a considerable force', Daily Mail.

'There is much pleasure to be had from watching a play as well structured and buoyantly acted as this',The Guardian.

'Beautifully caught by the director Sam Walters, The Orange Tree's prevailing artistic force and in peak form here', The ArtsDesk.

'Another gem' TheatreGuideLondon.

Photos by Robert Day.

Black and white photo of Sam Walters in rehearsals.

Top British racing driver Tyler Jones arrives in Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix. His life is made up of airports, hotels, racetracks, corporate events and brolly dollies.

For Tyler, Shanghai is no different from Bahrain or Melbourne. He's happy to toe the corporate party line as long as he can do what he lives to do: race cars. But when he meets and falls for Chinese dissident Pin-de, their worlds collide. Racing ambition seems suddenly futile set against Pin-de's struggle for survival. How can he square his newfound awareness about the reality of life and death in China, and help Pin-de, without losing everything he has?

'Timely...fascinating...full of passion', The Times.

'Has a hectic vitality...impressive', The Guardian.

'Strong... could hardly be more topical or on the button', TimeOut.

'Strong performances that make the evening shine', The Stage.

'An adeptness to the crafting hungry ghosts and an impressive articulacy' MusicOMH.

Photos by Robert Day.

In February 1994 Dr. Baruch Goldstein, a settler in Kiryat Arba, walked into the Mosque in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and shot dead 29 Muslims at prayer and wounded 125 others. Within two days the Israeli Government set up a Commission of Inquiry.

Nathan Abramowitz seeks the truth for himself about what happened, and why, and asks himself whether he too, as a non-Israeli Jew, is also in some way implicated in those deaths.

This is the British premiere of an exciting, provocative, fast moving and very theatrical Canadian play that deals with issues of concern to us all.

'Gripping... Sam Walters's production beautifully captures the dizzying speed of Sherman's play'. The Guardian.

'Urgently topical...Sherman infuses it with anxiety and energy' The Financial Times.

'Hard hitting...conveyed brilliantly in Sam Walters's fine production' The independent.

'Stunning... a must see production’ Remotegoat.

Photos by Robert Day.

Families. Can't live with them. Can't live without them.

In Autumn and Winter we are present at a regular family dinner with mother, father and their two daughters. But the evening develops into one of accusations, guilt and denial. Family dinners will never be the same again.

Lars Noren is regarded by many as the greatest Swedish playwright since Strindberg. Although highly regarded on the continent of Europe, his plays are seldom produced in England.

'It is well worth experiencing ... we have unjustly neglected the nerve-jangling Noren' The Guardian.

Photos by Robert Day.

A triple bill of English farces: 

Slasher and Crasher, Grimshaw Bagshaw and Bradshaw, and A Most Unwarrantlable Intrusion.

The re-discovery of the wonderful world of Maddison Morton (1811-1891), precursor of The Goons and Monty Python, is, as Kenneth tynan wrote in 1967, 'long overdue'. Gordon Craig thought him 'the funniest playwright that England ever had'. And Tynan thought him 'better than Feydeau'.

Thwarted lovers, disgruntled uncles and a jam loving suitor are among the characters caught up in this array of farcical encounters.

From Slasher and Crasher's efforts to prove themselves as brave and worthy men, to the bewilderred Grimshaw and his besieged lodgings, these colourful comic capers add mayhem and merriment to our season.

Photos by Robert Day.

The revolution has taken place. The dictator has fled. The new government is in power.

But the Prime Minister's secretary is under arrest and there are demonstrators on the streets and concern that the ideals of the revolution are about to be betrayed. The chiefs of the police, the army, the law and the intelligence services, aided and abetted by Helga, a rich and attractive widow known to them all, decide that action must be taken to protect the fledgling democracy. They must form a new, secret, Revolutionary Council - and just at that moment they hear that there is indeed a 'conspiracy'.

This is the UK premiere of this 1971 play and its first full English language production.

Photos by Robert Day.

"All I want to do is to understand the purpose of existence of one man, not of the population of Liverpool, you understand, just one man - examine him and we shall know ourselves."

Each evening Rudge, the director (or is he the writer or a philosopher?) along with Meff, the joker, Dust, the cynic, and either Lizzie or her twin sister, gather to examine the life of the hermit of Great Canfield.

Their quest is not made any easier by the actor hired to play the hermit wanting to know his 'motivation'. Why did James Alexander Mason decide in 1906 at the age of 48 to sell his cottage, build a hut in field beyond his village, surround it with ditches, hives of wild bees, barbed wire and two tons of corrugated iron fence and take up solitary residence? His brother left him food every day, but he was not seen again until at the age of 84 he was brought out dead.

The first revival for many years of James Saunders' startling and innovative 1963 play.

‘Partly a meditation on theatre, partly a think-piece about death, partly a post-modern tease and partly a historical excursion, this is a weird and wonderful evening.' The Arts Desk.

One night in January 2010 an earthquake in Haiti leaves around a hundred thousand people dead and almost two million homeless.

Meanwhile, somewhere in a leafy north London suburb, a group of six individuals convene over avocado and prawns, followed by monkfish stew.

They struggle with worries over their mortgages, their mobile phone tariffs, their Facebook friends, their careers, their love lives, their diets, their holiday plans and whether or not any of them will be able to make any lasting impression on history.

Muswell Hill, another comedy of acute social embarrassment from this award-winning playwright, is the third of Torben Betts' plays to be premiered at the Orange Tree.

'Torben Betts is one of the most exciting theatre writing talents I have come across in many a year.' Alan Ayckbourn.

Photos by Robert Day.

"Those that we call traitors may be the heroes - the men of conscience and ideals. It's my work to look into men's souls. It's truth I want, not this blatant simplicity. We are to be all one now. What a time! The day of the cheap patriot has come.'"

Written in 1923, this play by the author of Mary Broome, which was such a success last year, is set in a military family on the eve of the outbreak of the First World War.

As the war approaches, the family is torn by the differing attitudes to the coming conflict. Conscientious objections to war are not easy principles to espouse at such a time and in such a family.

A powerful and moving play by an author the Orange Tree is proud to have 're-discovered'.

Like Mary Broome, The Conquering Hero is directed by Auriol Smith.

'I cannot recommend too highly this play about the first world war ... Auriol Smith's production does rich justice to the complexity of Monkhouse's arguments and boasts a startling performance from Simon Harrison ... among the finest of the anti-war plays.' The Guardian.

Photos by Robert Day.

Public performance of the Primary Shakespeare education production.

We welcome families and Shakespeare lovers of all ages to an athletic imagining of
Shakespeare’s most popular comedy that will serve as ideal preparation for the sporting events of the summer of 2012.

Photos by Robert Day.

Why did last summer's riots happen?

This unflinching and poetic play tells the story of five very different people, and suggests some answers... From the politician's heartfelt plea for law enforcement and the angry youth's lament for rapidly reducing local services, to a young girl's sad solace in objectification, an impassioned and self-assured rant from an angry policeman and the far-right musings of an ostensibly respectable, high-ranking member of society, this is a clash of the misunderstandings in society that enabled fear - and the riots - to breed.

Instead of focussing on the carnage, this is about the people - the participants, observers and commentators.

This is for the people who rioted and the people who didn't.

Photos by Robert Day.

Off-beat comedy concerning a Finn, an Italian and an Englishman - none of whom speak a word of each other’s language.

1889 tragicomedy that plumbs the depths of the twisted triangular relationship between Tekla, her husband Adolph, and her ex-husband Gustav.

A four-hander that explores the background to the My-Lai massacre of 1968 in Vietnam: a group of three actors and their director devising and rehearsing an experimental theatre piece based on a Reuters report of the courts-martial of Captain Ernest Medina and Lieutenant William Calley. The sucess of the run led to a transfer to The Bijou, an Off-Broadway theatre in January 1973. Revived later in 1972 as part of the Season of Saunders. Later revived in the Celebration of Saunders Season, 2006.

A comic musical play from 1871, which satirises the sensation novels popular as pulp detective fiction in the victorian era.

Received.

The protagonist preaches obedience to those in authority whilst the world is visibly coming to an end.

An Actor is undergoing psychoanalysis. (The psychiatrist is imaginary). The Actor, with an isatiable appetite for whisky and close to a nervouse breakdown, is involved in a piece of experimental theatre. The nature of the experiment is that he has been given 20 minutes of script, and contracted to perform for at least 40 minutes. As a result, his scathing wit has free reign as he meanders from text to improv and back again.

A multiple conversation piece for eight or more actors. A series of ping-pong of exchanges for mismatched couples: words falling on deaf ears, obfuscation, dead-ends and circular arguments, put-downs and brief encounters, that often end with a silent slamming of doors, or a squabble over the last apple in the fruit basket. Later revived in 2006 as part of the Celebration of Saunders Season.

Sexual failure leads to psychiatric social work on the Pennine Moors, to music from Wagner.

Received and adapated from a short story.

An intelliegent woman who had a successful career is offered as part of her husband's promotion - as his unpaid hostess and self-sacrficing support.

A one-act 'dialogue', derived with small variations, from the novella La Morte Adosso (1923). The dialogue takes place in a bar, late at night, between a man who is dying and a peaceful businessman who has missed his train.

Woolf, in a seedy room, talks to the empty chair in which he is seated.

A psychiatrist treats a patient.

Based on a short story written in 1917, an ape named Red Peter, who has learned to behave like a human, presents to an academy the story of how he effected his transformation. Adaptation.

The three women of indeterminate age (Flo, Vi and Ru) are dressed in yellow, red and violet coats. Their reverie is punctuated as each intimates to the other a dark secret (perhaps the impending death) of each of the three, individually. An observation about lost youth, mortality and desire.

A sixth former, haunted by sexual inadequacies, is tormented by an French teacher nicknamed the Marquis de Sade. Revived in 1976.

Adapted from a short story.

A salesman for a trade magazine meets Anna, a hippie girl, and gives her a lift to Paris.

Two short plays (Can Anyone Smell Gas? was revived from 1972) presented under the title 'Linda Polan in Two Parts'.

Revival. An evening production. A sixth former, haunted by sexual inadequacies is tormented by an French teacher nicknamed the Marquis de Sade.

Revival.

An entertainment based on the poems of John Betjeman. Later revived for an evening run, then later transferred to the West End in a longer version. Devised.

Revival. An evening of entertainment based on the poems of John Betjeman. Later transferred to the West End in a longer version. Devised.

1518 Italian comedy about Callimaco who desires Lucrezia, the young and beautiful wife of an elderly fool. He tricks her into sleeping with him by giving her a drug which he claims will increase her fertility, but kill the first person she sleeps with.

A perceptive and witty look at the collapse of a marriage and the development of an affair. Bob is a do-it-yourself enthusiast with a longing to be needed. Even after his divorce he is constantly visiting his former home, much to the irritation of Diana who doesn’t like the competition from his children or his Black and Decker.

Mr Whatnot, an innocent and silent piano tuner with an incredible imagination, falls in love with Lord Slingsby-Craddock’s engaged daughter Amanda when he goes to tune the piano at the family's home. Through a series of ever more surreal encounters, the piano-tuner engineers the chance to be with his love despite all the odds.

Focussing on a 14 year old 'no-hoper' girl, the play debates whether placing her in an isolation unit would constitute therapy, punishment or toture. Disillusioned carers are pitted against indignant liberals. Later revived in a re-written version in 1993.

In Fly By, Baltasar has ideas about how high man can fly. Without wings, he launched himself into empty space, calculating the angle of flight and riding on the rising currents. He goes on to infect many people with his ideas, and little by little he manages to elevate himself. The idea reaches the highest spheres of power and those in charge of government also feel the temptation of flying, to control the force of gravity and emptiness. Some jump. And the consequences are disastrous. The play debates ideas surrounding the citizen and power, illusion and reality,and eventually leads to tragic revelation. In Zero Line, a group of people set off on a train journey to Kiu, each with an idea of the city they are heading for, formed on the basis of references. Having been subjected to strange pressures which were on the verge of destroying them, they think that this is their first day’s freedom. The events which take place on the journey make them realise that the real meaning of Kiu is quite different to what they had imagined. Nevertheless, freedom is possible. But the price is high.

An eager young teacher is about to tackle her first assignment, teaching basic English to a group of new citizens, none of whom speaks the same language. The voice of an off-stage translator enables the audience to understand what those on-stage cannot comprehend. Rigid and pedagogical at first, she becomes more frantic and desperate as her lack of success with her charges mounts, and the wonderfully funny misunderstandings multiply, until, at last, all self-control (and sanity) vanish into total, and totally hilarious, panic. The production later transferred (in February 1980) to Wyndham's Theatre in the West End, where the cast included Graeme Eton, Carl Forgione, James greene, Kieran Montague, Zohra Segal, Megumi Shimanuki, Auriol Smith, and Roman Stefanski.

Protest concerns the arrest of a pop musician. Vanek (the semi-autobiographical character based on Havel) is invited to the house of Stanek, a well-known writer and media figure. But why has he been invited? And is it fortunate that he happens to have in his pocket a petition protesting at the singer's arrest? Later revived in 2008 as part of the Havel Season. The Licence was performed alongside it, as was originally intended by Havel and Kohout.

1975 German play. A truck driver takes on extra work, disposing of toxic waste, which leads to the illness of his young baby, destroying both his idyllic family life and the enviroment around them.

Presented in the Room. Double Bill of John Mortimer plays.

Programme 2 of the Shaw shorts is about complex love entaglements. In How He Lied to her Husband a wife is concerned about her admirer's poems falling into her husband's hands. The amorous poet has different concerns and the husband's reaction is a surprise to all. If the husbands and wives in Overruled take holiday cruises around the world in opposite directions who knows whom they might meet and what might happen, while in Village Wooing a chance meeting on another cruise is life changing for the man who writes the 'Marco Polo Series of Chatty Guide Books'.

Tickets £16 (14 concessions)
Haydn op. 74/3 "Rider"
Daniel Jones String Quartet No.4
Tchaikovsky String Quartet No.1
with the Allegri String Quartet

Tickets £16 (14 concessions)
Beethoven op.95
Shostakovich 11
Beethoven op.131.
with the Allegri String Quartet

For the fourth year running, Funny Women will be supporting the Victoria Foundation with a fabulous Charity Comedy Night. The evening will be hosted by Mrs Barbara Nice (AKA Janice Connolly of Phoenix Nights fame), headlined by Jan Ravens of Dead Ringers, and will also feature 2012 Funny Women Awards winner Gabby Best as Marijana. Three of this year’s ‘comedy challengers’ who bravely performed stand-up for the first time in October in aid of the Victoria Foundation will also take part: the courageous Carrie Cantor, the plucky Charlotte Hogg and the daring Linda Duberley. So come and have a belly laugh in the knowledge that you’ll also be raising vital funds for this local charity.

Tickets £20
 

The London Premiere of Ibsen’s bittersweet comedy written in 1862, before his landmark plays rocked the world.

FOUR STARS
"David Antrobus's rare and exhilarating revival of this early Ibsen play" Michael Billington, The Guardian

FIVE STARS
“Antrobus’s production combines all the elements which go into making first-rate theatre” The Public Reviews

FOUR STARS  “...much to marvel at in the foresight of a young playwright, yet to make his name...” What’s on Stage

"the Orange Tree has done it proud" Independent

"this is a damning portrayal of conventional marriage. But there are plenty of chuckles, too." Time Out

"Sarah Winter’s Swanhild... a blend of mischief, innocence and independence. Mark Arends is a magnetic Falk" Evening Standard

A guitar-playing young revolutionary poet struggles with the consequences of falling in love. Students, poets, politicians and pastors meet and mix in the house of Mrs Halm and her daughters, where among the teacups and the music, love and marriage, feminism, heroism and youthful ideals fight for their place in the future.

Henrik Ibsen is the great Norwegian playwright known of course for A Doll’s House, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts and The Master Builder. Love’s Comedy is one of his earliest plays, written before Brand and Peer Gynt.

David Antrobus has been a regular actor at the Orange Tree over the past 15 years, where his parts have ranged from Malcolm in Macbeth to Cousins in Major Barbara and the recent Reading Hebron, among numerous others. This is his first production as a director.

Read an interview with David Antrobus about the production in Exeunt Magazine

Read actress Julia Watson's interview with Time and Leisure magazine

Running time 2 hours 40 minutes approximately (including interval)

Production photos by Robert Day

“This gloriously giddy revival... A triumph.” The Arts Desk

“Seasonal offerings do not come much better than this”
British Theatre Guide

Lucienne is being pursued by the married Pontagnac, who is astounded to discover that she is already married to his friend Vatelin, and also has an admirer called Redillon. Lucienne has sworn to be faithful as long as her husband remains so too. But then a keen old ‘indiscretion’ of her husband’s unexpectedly arrives, with her own husband, from Germany. Everyone ends up in the Hotel Ultimus, where the guests include an old army doctor and his deaf wife, in Paris to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Mayhem ensues.

Georges Feydeau was probably the finest French farceur the world has seen. Sauce for the Goose or Le Dindon (‘The Turkey’) in French, was written in 1896 and was first produced at the Orange Tree in 1987. The theatre has also produced Fitting for Ladies, The Game Hunter and Winner Takes All.

Running time: approximately 2 hours 35 minutes, including interval

Photos by Robert Day.

Reviews for the UK Premiere of Yours for the Asking:

The Independent: "the play darts backwards and forwards in an intricate, fractured time-scheme, adroitly handled in Walters’ fluent production, that is like the chronicle of a fate foretold…Steven Elder’s finely judged Juan, an embittered, world-weary journalist... Mia Austen strikingly captures the mix of vulnerability and newly awakened sharpness in this once-naive girl."

FIVE STARS from Plays to See.com: "The acting is uniformly excellent... Very highly recommended."

Yours for the Asking has been nominated for 2 Off West End Awards!

BEST MALE for Steven Elder for his performance as Juan and BEST LIGHTING DESIGNER for John Harris. Congratulations!

About the play

A perfume advertising campaign goes wrong.
A cynical reporter and a young photographer interview the attractive young model now at the centre of a scandal.

The lift to her apartment breaks down, the paper wants its story and journalists are out of contact.

Written by Spain's leading female playwright, this is the UK premiere of this 1973 play written while Franco still ruled.

Ana Diosdado was born in 1938 to a theatrical family in Buenos Aires, who returned to Madrid in 1950. She is a playwright, novelist and actress, and has also adapted plays by Peter Ustinov and Henrik Ibsen.

Yours for the Asking (Usted también podrá isfrutar de ella) won the Fastermath prize of the Real Academia de la Lengua in 1973, and is her most performed play.

More reviews for Yours For the Asking:

The Times: "...seems an astonishingly prescient piece that offers a grotesque warning about where mindless consumerism and gossip-fuelled junk culture can lead..."

The Guardian: "...offers a chilling reminder of the impotent despair and pervasive fear that characterised Franco's Spain. Sam Walters's production also finds ingenious solutions to the play's technical demands, and the acting all round is good.”

Photos by Robert Day

Join the renowned Allegri Quartet for the next series of classical concerts.

1 Mozart quintet k516 in g minor

Allegro

Menuetto allegretto

Adagio ma non troppo

Adagio- Allegro

Interval

Mozart quintet in c major k515

Allegro

Menuetto Allegretto

Andante

Allegro

Guest violist Graham Oppenheimer

Join the renowned Allegri Quartet for the next series of classical concerts.

Witness a legendary conspiracy with some of history’s most notorious figures in Shakespeare’s action-packed Roman tragedy.

Four actors perform an abridged production lasting around an hour, suitable for parents and their children aged 7+

Photos by Robert Day

Dreadnought South West Association presents

Oxygen
A new play by Natalie McGrath

100 years ago imagine that fifteen women gather. They have a conversation that maps eight geographic arteries across England and Wales, like points on a compass. These arteries reach out towards a singular destination like roots forming a tree. The destination is Hyde Park. It’s June, 1913 and the Great Suffrage Pilgrimage begins.  

In Cornwall, women start. Start walking along one of these arteries. Carrying a banner saying: Land’s End to Hyde Park.

What they want is to end child poverty. What they want is to stop the white slave traffic. What they want is to end sweated labour.

But they know they can’t do this unless they have the right to vote. So they go where the heat is. To rally. To recruit. To be heard. Showing great courage in the face of opposition. In Cornwall, women start. Walking all the way. Many joining them. Marking border crossings. Singing the same songs. Placing one foot in front of another. Together.

And fifteen women become tens of thousands of people. It is July 26th, 1913. Hyde Park. And the South West women are there. Sharing the same oxygen.

A tour of a new play from Lands End to London

Director Josie Sutcliffe
Creative Producer Kerrie Avery
Designer Sophia Clist
Musical Director Claire Ingleheart

Dreadnought South West website

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Somerset Maugham was one of the most successful writers in the first half of the twentieth century. A prolific novelist, short story writer and playwright, he also had a lurid, varied and unconventional personal life.

A delightful and apt comedy by one of Britain’s most popular twentieth century writers, who once outsold all his brilliant contemporaries, including Joseph Conrad and Robert Louis Stevenson. Before the age of 30, he had four plays on in the West End at the same time.

Running time: approximately 2hrs 30mins, including 2 intervals

The Life and Work of Somerset Maugham
Sat 4 May 10.30am
Find out more about the author of The Breadwinner, including readings from his plays.
Click here for more details

Production photos by Robert Day

TIME OUT CRITICS' CHOICE

FOUR STARS "It almost defies belief that Githa Sowerby's 1924 drama is only now receiving its British professional premiere... The Stepmother is riveting stuff... If you want good drama in London, head to Richmond."
Michael Billington - The Guardian
Read the full review

FOUR STARS “Walters' astute and deeply involving production... Recommended” Paul Taylor - Independent
Read the full review

FOUR STARS "Anyone in need of a reminder of just how much feminism has achieved over the last century should see this play... This production, directed by Sam Walters, is beautifully staged... The cast, too, are excellent." Time Out

“This is certainly one of the Orange Tree’s finest long-lost revivals, directed by Sam Walters with intelligence and brio, and acted for all its worth by a terrific cast.” The Stage
Read the full review

Lois Relph, a young stepmother with two stepdaughters for whom she cares deeply and her own thriving business, appears contented and in charge. But this is 1924, so does she really have control of her own money, or even her life, and what will she be able to do if things are in danger of going wrong both personally and professionally? It needs courage and determination to define what being a wife, mother and businesswoman means and it is not easy. A story whose resonance is still felt today.

This is the first professional production in the UK of a 1924 play by the author of the acclaimed Rutherford and Son, voted one of the top 100 plays of the 20th century.

Running time: 2 hrs 35 mins (including interval)

Photos by Robert Day

Performed by arrangement with Samuel French.

Sam Walters talks to Theatre Voice about rediscovering The Stepmother

Production images by Robert Day

6 writers, 6 new short plays, and the lives of 5 characters collide.

UNRIVALLED LANDSCAPE - trailer from Orange Tree Theatre on Vimeo.