OUTSIDE

INSIDE / OUTSIDE is a collection of world premiere short plays by six emerging and established writers, performed and live-streamed from the Orange Tree Theatre’s auditorium.

Book here for the live-streamed performances of OUTSIDE, a triple bill of plays by Sonali Bhattacharyya (former Channel 4 Playwright in Residence at the OT), Zoe Cooper (Out of Water, Jess and Joe Forever) and Kalungi Ssebandeke (who performed in Blood Knot), directed by Georgia Green (The Mikvah Project). All three plays will be in each performance. Click here to find out about the INSIDE plays, which were on in March 2021.

Recommended by The Guardian's Hottest front-room seats, The Sunday Times and Lyn Gardner

Praise for INSIDE:
★★★★★ “Even watching on a screen, there’s a real sense that this is ‘live theatre’ and its electrifying. It may have been twelve months, but with Inside the Orange Tree makes a triumphant return” Theatre Weekly

Praise for OUTSIDE
★★★★ “The strength of the writing in each play makes for an absorbing evening” Broadway World

TWO BILLION BEATS by Sonali Bhattacharyya

PRODIGAL by Kalungi Ssebandeke 

THE KISS by Zoe Cooper

The plays present three stories of finding connection in the darkness and coming together after so long apart.

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BUY THE PLAYTEXT
The 6 plays of Inside/Outside will be published in a collection by Nick Hern Books on 25 March – pre-order now from their website and get an automatic 20% discount. Bookers for the livestream will receive an exclusive half-price offer on the published collection.

The Inside/Outside series is curated by OT Literary Associate Guy Jones.

All rehearsals and filming will be conducted in a Covid secure environment in line with current government guidelines.

ABOUT THE WRITERS & DIRECTOR

Sonali Bhattacharyya was 2018 Channel 4 writer in residence at the Orange Tree, where she wrote Chasing Hares, winner of the Sonia Friedman Production Award. Her credits include Megaball (National Theatre Learning for ‘Let’s Play’), Slummers (Bunker Theatre), 2066 (Almeida Theatre), The Invisible Boy (Kiln Theatre) and White Open Spaces (Pentabus Theatre – South Bank Show award-nominated). She was one of three playwrights selected for the inaugural Old Vic 12, and is currently under commission to Fifth Word and Kiln Theatre, writer in residence at National Theatre Studio and recently shortlisted for the Woman’s Playwriting Award for her play Deepa the Saint.

Zoe Cooper’s Out of Water had its world première at the Orange Tree in 2019 and was a finalist in the 2020 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She was also shortlisted for the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Awards 2019, and nominated for the Best New Production of a Play Award in the Broadwayworld UK Awards. Her playwrighting credits include Jess and Joe Forever (Orange Tree Theatre/Traverse Theatre/UK tour – Off West End Award for Most Promising Playwright Award 2017, longlisted for the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award) and Nativities and Utopia (Live Theatre).

Kalungi Ssebandeke was selected for the BBC Writersroom London Voices, and Soho Theatre’s Writers Lab. He was also selected for the Lyric Hammersmith Ten Week Writers Programme and has written for the Young Vic, Bush Theatre and Talawa, his credits include Assata Taught Me (Gate Theatre). As an actor, his credits include Blood Knot (Orange Tree Theatre).

Georgia Green directs. Her previous credits include The Mikvah Project (Orange Tree Theatre/BBC Radio 4) for which she was nominated for Best Director at The Stage Debut Awards. Also: Blue Stockings and You Got Older (LAMDA).

With thanks to the Hayburn Trust.

With thanks to DCMS and Arts Council England for support through the Culture Recovery Fund.

Production photos by Ali Wright