The Orange Tree Theatre today announces the final three plays of its 2022/23 season, as outgoing Artistic Director Paul Miller hands over to new Artistic Director Tom Littler.
The newly announced spring shows begin with the world premiere of the winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Playwriting,You Bury Me by Ahlam.The award-winning play about post-revolutionary life in Cairo is directed by joint Artistic Director of Paines Plough Katie Posner, in an Orange Tree co-production with Paines Plough, The Women’s Prize for Playwriting, 45North, and The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, in association with Bristol Old Vic.
Tom Littler then makes his Orange Tree directorial debut with Somerset Maugham’s comedy The Circle, following his previous revival of Maugham’s For Services Rendered at Jermyn Street Theatre in 2019; and completing the season is the world premiere of Isley Lynn’s The Swell in a co-production with The Women’s Prize for Playwriting and Damsel Productions, directed by Hannah Hauer-King (The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs, The Funeral Director).
Spring 2023 also sees the return of the OT Community’s successful Primary Shakespeare project, producing As You Like It for 2023, designed to support schools’ curriculum study at Key Stage 2 & 3, introduce Shakespeare’s language and stories in an accessible and fun way, and give younger children their first taste of the excitement of live performance.
These productions complete the 2022/23 Season featuring the already-announced hilarious classic Arms and the Man by Bernard Shaw, directed by outgoing Artistic Director Paul Miller; the return of Sonali Bhattacharyya’s important and entertaining play Two Billion Beats, co-directed by Nimmo Ismail and Tian Brown-Sampson; and the striking world-premiere of Grim Brenda by Ross Willis, developed with and directed by Ned Bennett, and co-produced with Francesca Moody Productions.
Each of these newly announced spring productions will also be available to watch on-demand thanks to the continuation of OT On Screen, allowing greater access for audiences far and wide to connect with the OT digitally.
Tom Littler says today “As the Orange Tree completes its fiftieth year in Richmond, these plays conclude a year of programming begun by the inspirational Paul Miller, whose tenure reaches a fitting finale with Grim Brenda. You Bury Me, The Circle, As You Like It and The Swell celebrate a dynamic relationship between the old and the new, which continues in the adventurous spirit of the OT. We are delighted to forge new alliances with The Women’s Prize for Playwriting, Paines Plough, 45North, The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, Bristol Old Vic, and Damsel Productions to ensure these plays are seen by the widest audiences and are produced to the highest standards.”
