The Orange Tree Theatre Reveals Autumn 2024 Season

The Orange Tree (OT) has announced four new productions for their Autumn season, featuring the world premières of Here in America by David Edgar and Treasure Island: the True(r) Story by Hannah Khalil. The OT also continues their partnership with the JMK Trust and will stage a modern classic in Autumn 2024 directed by next year's winner of the JMK Award, and completing the season, Twelfth Night directed by OT Artistic Director Tom Littler and starring Olivier Award winner Oliver Ford Davies.

The Greenhouse Festival, which showcases the OT New Artists programme, will also return in summer 2024, continuing the collaboration between the OT and the drama school LAMDA. Headlining the festival will be six productions by graduating LAMDA students, titles to be announced.

Also announced today is a one-week extension for the 250th anniversary production of Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer directed by Tom Littler with Francesca Ellis. Starring Freddie Fox, Tanya Reynolds and Greta Scacchi, this will now run from 18 November 2023 to 13 January 2024, with Press Night on 22 November.

Artistic Director Tom Littler said today, “We are looking forward to Autumn 2024 as a season that unites generations of artists. For the first time, the OT Young Company will deliver a major production as a highlight of the festive season. Hannah Khalil's Treasure Island: the True(r) Story will be the centrepiece of an expanded programme of work with young people. We are renewing our commitment to early career directors through the JMK Young Directors Award and the Greenhouse Festival. David Edgar's Here in America is a major new play exploring timely issues through a historical lens. And I eagerly await directing Oliver Ford Davies, one of the finest Shakespearean actors of his generation, as Malvolio in Twelfth Night.”

Hanna Streeter, Executive Director, said today, “The first play I ever saw was Twelfth Night in a Primary Shakespeare project at the Orange Tree Theatre, so I'm over the moon to be producing this magical comedy with the great Oliver Ford Davies. This new season honours our commitments to artists of all generations, from recent graduates to theatrical legends. Operating without an Arts Council grant, we rely on the support of our Members and Patrons, and we're happy to offer them this period of priority booking.”

Tickets for Autumn 2024 are now on sale to Orange Tree Theatre Members and Patrons, with public booking opening in May 2024.

HERE IN AMERICA

By David Edgar

14 September – 19 October 2024

Press Night: Monday 23 September 2024

A compelling new drama about two titans of stage and screen, Elia Kazan and Arthur Miller, both passionately involved with an actress about to become the world's most famous movie star. As an anti-communist crusade sweeps Hollywood, Kazan and Miller face stark choices.

David Edgar's plays include Albert Speer, Playing with Fire (National Theatre), Testing the Echo (Out of Joint), If Only (Chichester Festival Theatre),Trying it On (Birmingham Rep, RSC, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and UK tour), Black Tulips (Kiln Theatre, US tour), Concerning Faith (Bush Theatre, Westminster Abbey). For the RSC, his original plays include Destiny, Maydays, Pentecost (also Young Vic), Written on the Heart (also Duchess Theatre), The Shape of the Table (also National Theatre) and The Prisoner's Dilemma. His adaptations include Mary Barnes, Julian Barnes' Arthur and George (Birmingham Rep), The Jail Diary of Albie Sach, Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby, Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dickens' A Christmas Carol (RSC) and English versions of Brecht's Galileo (Birmingham Rep), Mother Courage and Her Children (Stratford Festival of Canada) and Ibsen's The Master Builder (Chichester Festival Theatre). His television credits include The Eagle Has Landed, I Know What I Mean, Buying a Landslide, Citizen Locke, and Vote for Them; and for film, Lady Jane.

JMK AWARD WINNER

Modern Classic to be announced

26 October – 16 November

Press Night: Wednesday 30 October 2024

The winner of the UK's most prestigious theatre directing prize stages a modern classic play. This year's winner follows in the footsteps of Meetings, The Solid Life of Sugar Water, Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act, and Little Baby Jesus.

The JMK Trust was founded in memory of James Menzies-Kitchin, a young director of great promise who died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 28, to give opportunities to theatre directors of similar ability and vision. Each year it gives one prestigious award to enable an outstanding applicant aged 35 or under to create their own production of their choice of text. Its intensive development and selection process has itself given powerful impetus to the best theatre practitioners of the future. Previous winners have become major players in British theatre, including Thea Sharrock, Orla O'Loughlin, Bijan Sheibani, Joe Hill-Gibbins, Natalie Abrahami, Roy Alexander Weise and Polly Findlay.

 

 

TWELFTH NIGHT

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Tom Littler

Starring Oliver Ford Davies

 

23 November 2024 – 25 January 2025

Press Night: Friday 29 November 2024

By day, Malvolio runs the Lady Olivia's house with puritanical zeal, but after dark, the wine flows freely...

Olivier Award-winning Oliver Ford Davies returns to the OT to play Malvolio in Shakespeare's heartrending and hilarious masterpiece of mistaken identities and secret desires.

Oliver Ford Davies returns to the Orange Tree, having previously performed in The Promise, Larkin with Women, The Linden Tree and King Cromwell. His extensive other theatre credits include All's Well That Ends Well, Much Ado About Nothing, Saint Joan, The Life of Galileo, Playing with Fire, Absence of War, Murmuring Judges, Racing Demon, The Shaughraun, Hamlet, The Shape of the Table, Peter Gynt (National Theatre), King Lear, Coriolanus, Richard II, King Lear, Naked, Ivanov (Almeida Theatre), Cressida, Henry IV Part 2, Written on the Heart, Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (RSC), Richard II (Barbican, RSC, BAM Theatre), The Soldier's Fortune (Young Vic), Absolutely! (Perhaps) (Wyndham's Theatre) and Heartbreak House (Theatre Royal Haymarket). His television credits include Game of Thrones, Waking the Dead, The Way We Live Now, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Kavanagh QC, Departure, Father Brown and Catastrophe; and for film, Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Atonement, Heidi, Johnny English, An Ideal Husband, Titanic Town, Mrs Brown and Sense and Sensibility.

 

Artistic Director of the OT, Tom Littler directs. His theatre credits include The Circle (Orange Tree Theatre and 2024 UK tour), She Stoops to Conquer (Orange Tree Theatre), Saturday Night (Jermyn Street Theatre, Arts Theatre), A Little Night Music (Central Theatre), Good Grief (Theatre Royal Bath), Dances of Death (Gate Theatre), Martine (Finborough Theatre), Miss Julie and Creditors (Theatre by the Lake, Jermyn Street Theatre), Tonight at 8.30, Cancelling Socrates, The Odyssey, 15 Heroines (Jermyn Street Theatre), Cabaret (English Theatre Frankfurt, Deutsches Theater Munich), and Hamlet (Guildford Shakespeare Company).

 

 

TREASURE ISLAND: THE TRUE(R) STORY

By Hannah Khalil

Pirated from the novel by R.L. Stevenson

Directed by Natasha Rickman

 

18 – 22 December

 

When Jim Hawkins and friends stumble on the key to a fortune, they board the good ship Hispaniola and set sail in search of treasure. Hannah Khalil (RSC, Shakespeare's Globe) joins forces with the OT Young Company and Carne Associate Director Natasha Rickman.

Hannah Khalil's theatre credits include Hakawatis, Henry VIII, The Fir Tree (Shakespeare's Globe), The Tempest (Little Angel Theatre), A Museum in Baghdad (The Swan Theatre), Bitterenders (Arcola Theatre), Mrs Scrooge (Fly High Stories),  Myths and Adventures from Ancient Greece (Watermans Arts Centre), Dear Tomorrow – Hope from Home (Northern Stage), Not The Gingerbread Man (Fly High Stories), Penelope (Jermyn Street Theatre), Interference: Metaverse (National Theatre of Scotland), The Scar Test (Soho Theatre), Scenes from 68* Years (Arcola Theatre), Bond of Love – Walking the Tightrope (Theatre Delicatessen), Worst Cook in the West Bank (Old Red Lion Theatre and Unity Theatre), Plan D (Tristan Bates Theatre), Bitterenders (Z Space, Golden Thread's ReOrient Festival San Francisco), Leaving Home (King's Head Theatre). Her film credits include Suited and The Record.

Natasha Rickman directs. She is the Carne Associate Director at the OT and LAMDA. Her directing credits include Little Women (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre), The Prince (Southwark Playhouse) Antigone (Storyhouse), Now and Then (English Theatre Frankfurt), Richard II (Guildford Shakespeare Company), The Standard Short Long Drop (The Vanguard Theatre), Beauty and the Beast, The Time Machine, Duchess of Malfi, Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Whatsapp (Creation), Much Ado About Nothing (RADA at the Utah Shakespeare Festival) and the forthcoming Romeo and Juliet (Orange Tree Theatre, Guildford Shakespeare Company and UK tour) among others.

The OT Young Company is an ensemble formed annually for people aged 18 to 25 seeking to develop as theatre-makers and performers. Participants experience rehearsal processes for scripted and devised work, receive masterclasses from leading industry freelancers, learn how professional theatre operates, and form a vibrant part of the OT's ecosystem of emerging artists.

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