SPANISH ORANGES World Premiere To Open At The Playground Theatre In February

Counterminers, M&M Ents, and The Playground Theatre will present the world premiere of SPANISH ORANGES, a new play written by Alba Arikha and directed by Myriam Cyr. The production will run at The Playground Theatre in West London from Wednesday, February 11 through Saturday, March 7, with a press performance scheduled for Monday, February 16.

Set over the course of a single morning, Spanish Oranges centers on Fiona, a novelist on the verge of public recognition, and Ivo, a once-celebrated actor whose career has stalled. As personal and professional tensions collide, the play examines power, authorship, and the cost of ambition within a marriage shared by two artists.

The production will star Maryam D'Abo, known for her role opposite Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights, as Fiona Stedman. She will be joined by Jay Villiers as Ivo and Arianna Branca as Lydia Stedman.

Arikha, whose novels include Two Hours and Where to Find Me, said, “As a novelist, I've often explored the dynamics of a marriage, the pattern of interactions that evolve between a couple. I became interested in illustrating that same pattern through dialogue rather than prose, and with two artists as protagonists: Ivo the actor, Fiona the writer… Spanish Oranges was my way to answer those questions, and I'm delighted to see it brought to the stage.”

Director Myriam Cyr added, “Spanish Oranges walks those blurred lines between private and public, between love and the need for space, between truth and fiction, between a woman and a man. We are flys on the wall. In real time we see two lives irrevocably change and at the end nothing will ever be the same.”

The creative team includes sound designer Martha Barrow and lighting designer Tom Beazley.