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30 Years of The Orange Tree Theatre
- Opening lunchtime play Go tell it on Table Mountain
performed twice on the Theatre's opening day to accomodate
the overflowing crowds
- Invitations to Europalia 73, new plays by James Saunders.
"It is quite simply a stunner. It must be seen" Evening
Standard
- Young's renovate the pub in 1975 and regular evening
shows begin with The Lady or The Tiger causing
ticket queuing chaos and transferring to the West End
- 1977 is a special yeaar as we found ourselves premiering Vaclav
Havel and acting as a centre for Czech friends as Charter
77 hit the world "...the production brings you unmistakeably
in touch with a masterpiece" The Times as
well as James Saunders new play Bodies
- Olwen Wymark's Find Me influenced the theatre's
future minimal style
- 78/79 season saw our first production and the London premier
of Ayckbourn's Family Circles and Brecht's Caucasian
Chalk Circle.
"iconoclastic and theatrically thrilling....Dont miss it!"
Time Out
"the effect Brecht required...real narrative charm and
humour" Financial Times
- During the 80's we began and developed our schools work and
played to 100% during our 81/82 10th Birthday season, which
included Wild Wild Women
- In 1984 we had an ecstatically praised production of Tolstoy's
The Power of Darkness and revived the reputation
of rodney Ackland with The Dark River - following
it with Absolute Hell in 1988
- We toured Europe with Stephen Jeffries adaptation of
Hard Times and, it seemed, began to open every season
with a new play by Martin Crimp
- By 1988 the long dormant plans of the building which would
house the new theatre started to come to life and appropriately
the 87/88 season won us Time Out award for "an exceptional
season"
- The topping out ceremony for the new theatre took place in
June 1989 and Princess Alexandra as well as carrying out that
task came to the play in the upstairs pub room (was she the
first royal to attend a play in such a space?)
- The final plays in the Orange Tree pub before the move into
the new theatre were the British premiere of Vaclav Havel's
latest play Redevelopment and Geoffrey Beevers'
Time Out Award winning adaptation of George Elliot's Adam
Bede.
"thrilling and uplifting" Time Out
- The New Orange Tree Theatre opened in February 1991 with Arthur
Murphy's All in the Wrong
"...a beacon has been lit in Richmond, with the opening
of the superb Orange Tree Theatre..Over the past twenty years
it has aquired a national and even international, reputation
for several reasons:its eclectic repertory (everything from
foreign classics and new plays to musicals),its pioneering presentation
of the work of Vaclav Havel, and its belief that there are no
limits to what one can achieve on a tiny pocket sized stage"
Micheal Billington
- We revived Ackland's The Dark River again with
great success. We were part of the the official 1992 Edinburgh
Festival. The 92/93 Christmas production John Whiting's A
Penny for a Song delighted audiences and returned in
the summer. Auriol Smith's production of The Case of Rebellious
Susan won her a Time Out Award "...has the
house captivated....scintillating production" Financial
Times and Flora The Red Menace won over all
hearts.
- We discovered the work of Susan Glaspell, continued
the exploration of the plays of Micheal Vinaver and returned
to that delightful and neglected French masterpiece Doctor
Knock.
- In 96/97 the 25th birthday season we produced Stephen Bill's
epic What the heart Feels and triumphed with a
return to Ayckbourn's Family Circle
- In 98/99 for the third time in our history we had a permanent
company. For theatre is about actors entertaining audiences.
All the rest of us are only here to make that happen. May it
long go on happening at the Orange Tree for 30 years more-and
more.
"The whole evening is deeply satisfying and even if
you live a fair distance from Richmond it is worth the journey"
The Sunday Telegraph
"The Orange Tree always has a special magic"
Audience Survey 1992
"We would much rather attend a production here than
anywhere else" Audience Survey 2000
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