Orange Tree Artistic Director Tom Littler and Executive Director Hanna Streeter have announced full programming for the 2025 season at Orange Tree Theatre (OT). The season is comprised of six new plays including four world premières, two rediscoveries and a classic comedy. The OT also announces today the launch of OT Under 30 Nights as part of a renewed commitment to engage and support young audiences.
Churchill in Moscow reunites Brenton and Littler for their sixth collaboration with Roger Allam in the titular role to launch the season. The play explores an imagined meeting between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin at the Kremlin in 1942. A revival of April De Angelis’ Playhouse Creatures follows, directed by Michael Oakley and starring Anna Chancellor, which will transfer to the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and Theatre Royal Bath. The Orange Tree then presents the London première of the RSC production of Mark Ravenhill’s Ben and Imo,directed by Erica Whyman, with Samuel Barnett and Victoria Yeates reprising their roles. The spring season culminates with a revival of Terence Rattigan’s penultimate play In Praise of Love,directed by Amelia Sears.
The 2025 season continues with Poor Clare by Chiara Atik directed by Blanche McIntyre, and the world premières of two adaptations: August Strindberg’s Dance of Death newly adapted and directed by Richard Eyre, and Hedda a new play by Tanika Gupta inspired by Ibsen’s classic Hedda Gabler. The 2025 season culminates with Tom Littler directing the 250th Anniversary production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s comic classic The Rivals, alongside the OT Young Company performing in Alice in Wonderland, a new play by Chinonyerem Odimba inspired by Lewis Carroll’s novel.
Artistic Director Tom Littler said today, “It’s sometimes said that history never repeats itself, but it does rhyme. This year of programming digs into the past to ask questions about the present and the future. Questions about power and those who wield it; about the shadow of war; about privilege and class; about heritage; about secrecy and honesty. These are rich plays: entertaining, exciting, and provocative. We can’t wait to share the work of these outstanding writers with our audiences in Richmond and beyond.”
The OT’s Community team continue their work to connect young people with Shakespeare with the return of Primary Shakespeare and Shakespeare Up Close. The OT will present Julius Caesar for Primary school audiences directed by Community Director Francesca Ellis, with Romeo & Juliet directed by Marcus Bazleyand Macbeth, directed by Zoë Waterman, presentedfor Secondary school audiences, in a co-production with Guildford Shakespeare Company. The OT Young Company will once again take part in the National Theatre’s Connections festival, giving 14–18-year-olds the chance to perform on the Orange Tree and Lyric Hammersmith stages, a small number of companies will then be chosen to perform at the National Theatre.
The OT also today announces the launch of OT Under 30 Nights,with the inaugural event taking place on Friday 8 November for the JMK Award-winning production Guards at the Taj. Within the £15 ticket price, 18–29-year-old theatregoers will receive a free drink, a post-show talk, and a social event in the bar. On 8 November, post-show panellists include cast members Usaamah Ibraheem Hussain and Maanuv Thiara, creatives Roisin Jenner and Priya Virdee. The panel will be chaired by Kalungi Ssebandeke, winner of the 2023 JMK award.
Hanna Streeter, Executive Director, said today “Alongside our main house programme, our community and education programmes go from strength to strength, working with children and adults of all ages and backgrounds to inspire and enrich the lives of thousands of people. We’re also delighted to launch our OT Under 30 scheme which sees our £15 tickets for under 30s extended to include special OT Under 30 nights for each show, as part of our commitment to developing the next generation of theatre-goers.”
Priority booking for Churchill in Moscow, Playhouse Creatures, Ben and Imo and In Praise of Love opens from 16 October at 12pm, with general on sale opening on 28 October at 12pm.
On sale details for the rest of the season to be announced.
The world première production of
CHURCHILL IN MOSCOW
By Howard Brenton
Directed by Tom Littler
Starring Roger Allam
3 February – 8 March 2025
Everything is possible in Moscow at night.
The Kremlin, Moscow, 1942. A top-secret meeting between Winston Churchill (Allam) and Joseph Stalin: one, a wealthy aristocrat from a blue-blooded line of English nobility, the other a Georgian peasant, hell-bent on destroying capitalism and the class system. Can Churchill and Stalin find common ground? As diplomats struggle to control the escalating chaos, two interpreters find themselves caught in the eye of the storm.
The world premiere of Howard Brenton’s gripping drama imagines the meeting of two unpredictable titans as history teeters on a knife-edge.
Howard Brenton’s plays include Cancelling Socrates, The Blinding Light (Jermyn Street Theatre), Jude, Lawrence After Arabia, Drawing the Line, The Arrest of Weiwei, 55 Days (Hampstead Theatre), The Shadow Factory (Nuffield Theatre), Ransomed, Epsom Downs (Salisbury Playhouse), Doctor Scroggy’s War, Ann Bolyn, In Extremis (Shakespeare’s Globe), Dances of Death (Gate Theatre), The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Liverpool Everyman, Chichester Festival Theatre), The Romans in Britain, Paul, Pravda, Weapons of Happiness (National Theatre), Snogging Ken – co-written by Tariq Ali and Andy de la Tour(Almeida Theatre), Kit’s Play (Jerwood Theatre, RADA), Collateral Damage (Tricycle Theatre), and Playing Away (Opera North). Berlin Bertie, Iranian Nights, Greenland, Bloody Poetry, The Genius, Magnificence, Revenge (Royal Court Theatre), Moscow Gold (RSC Barbican Centre), (National Theatre), Thirteenth Night, Sore Throats (RSC at Donmar Warehouse), A Short Sharp Shock (Royal Court at Theatre Royal Stratford East), The Churchill Play (Nottingham Playhouse, RSC), Brassneck (Nottingham Playhouse). Adaptations include Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo, Georg Büchner’s Danton’s Death (National Theatre), August Strindberg’s Miss Julie (Jermyn Street Theatre) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust – Faust: Parts I and II (RSC, The Pit Theatre). For television his credits include Spooks and Dead Head.
Roger Allam plays Winston Churchill. His theatre credits include Frank and Percy (Theatre Royal Windsor, Theatre Royal Bath, The Other Palace), A Number (Bridge Theatre), Rutherford and Sons, Afterlife, The Cherry Orchard, Albert Speer, Summerfolk, Money – Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor, Troilus and Cressida, The Way of the World (National Theatre), Limehouse, Privates on Parade – Olivier Award for Best Actor (Donmar Warehouse), The Moderate Soprano (Hampstead Theatre, Duke of York’s Theatre), The Tempest, Henry IV Parts I and II – Olivier Award for Best Actor,(Shakespeare’s Globe), La Cage Aux Folles (Duke of York’s Theatre), God of Carnage (Theatre Royal Bath, UK tour), The Giant, Semina (Hampstead Theatre), Boeing Boeing, What the Night is For (Comedy Theatre), Pravda (Chichester Festival Theatre), Blackbird (King’s Theatre Edinburgh, Noël Coward Theatre), Democracy (National Theatre, Wyndham’s Theatre), Art (Wyndham’s Theatre), Arcadia (Haymarket Theatre), City of Angels (Prince of Wales Theatre), Les Misérables (Barbican) and The Learned Ladies and Macbeth (RSC). His television credits include The Sandman, Murder in Provence, Game of Thrones, Endeavour, The Missing, The Life of Rock, Bad Education, Politician’s Husband, Parades End, The Jury, Krod Mandoon, Ashes to Ashes, The Curse of the Steptoe, The Thick of It, A Class Apart, I Do, Spooks, The Catherine Tate Show, Meet the Robinsons, Inspector Lynley, Manchild, Foyle’s War, Walking the Dead, Chambers, A Century of Troubles: Cromwell’s War, Henry IV, Inspector Morse, Between the Lines, Landing on the Sun and The Jury; and for film Tetris, Say Your Prayers, The Hippopotamus, The Truth Commissioner, Mr Holmes, Girls Night Out, The Book Thief, The Angels Share, The Iron Lady, The Woman in Black, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tamara Drewe, Speedracer, The Queen, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, V for Vendetta, A Cock and Bull Story, The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone, The Swiss Family Robinson, RKO 281, WILT and The Lady in the Van.
Artistic Director of the OT Tom Littler directs. At the OT, he has directed Suite in Three Keys (also Theatre Royal Bath), She Stoops to Conquer, and The Circle (later revived for a national tour by Theatre Royal Bath). Other theatre includes Saturday Night (Jermyn Street Theatre, Arts Theatre), A Little Night Music (Budapest), 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 Tempest, The Odyssey, 15 Heroines (Jermyn Street Theatre), Cabaret (English Theatre Frankfurt, Deutsches Theater Munich) and Hamlet (Guildford Shakespeare Company). He was Artistic Director of Jermyn Street Theatre from 2017 to 2022, before moving to the OT.
PLAYHOUSE CREATURES
By April De Angelis
Directed by Michael Oakley
Starring Anna Chancellor
15 March – 12 April 2025
I’m an actress. They’ve never had one of those before. I’m a novelty.
It’s the swinging (16)60s, and ‘the merry monarch’ Charles II is on the throne. After violent civil war, England’s theatres have finally reopened and, for the first time, women are allowed to perform in public.
In the West End, grande dame Mrs Betterton (Chancellor) rules the roost. But there’s a new face in town: an orange-seller with dreams of stardom.
From dressing-room camaraderie to bitter rivalry, April De Angelis’ gloriously exuberant, bawdily funny and deeply poignant play celebrates five women grabbing this newfound freedom and making their way in an unfamiliar world. But at what price?
April De Angelis’ extensive theatre work includes The Divine Mrs S (Hampstead Theatre), Infamous (Jermyn Street Theatre), Kerry Jackson (National Theatre), Saving Grace (Riverside Studios), Gin Craze! (Royal & Derngate Theatre), My Brilliant Friend, a dramatization of Elena Ferrantes’ epic family saga (Rose Theatre Kingston, National Theatre), The Village (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Frankenstein (Royal Exchange), 2018 Gastronauts, Wild East (Royal Court Theatre), Jumpy (Royal Court Theatre, Duke of York’s Theatre), an adaptation of Wuthering Heights (Birmingham Rep), A Laughing Matter (Out of Joint at National Theatre); A Warwickshire Testimony (RSC), The Positive Hour (Out of Joint at Hampstead Theatre), Playhouse Creatures (Old Vic Theatre), The Life And Times Of Fanny Hill (The Old Fire Station) and Flight (Glyndebourne Opera).
Anna Chancellor plays Mrs Betterton. Her theatre credits include The Seagull, The Observer, Never So Good, Stanley (National Theatre), The Wolf from the Door (Royal Court Theatre), Browning Version/ South Downs (Chichester Festival Theatre, Harold Pinter Theatre), Private Lives (Chichester Theatre, Gielgud Theatre), The Last Duchess (Hampstead theatre) Creditors (Donmar Warehouse, American Theatre of Actors), Boston Marriage, The Real Inspector Hound, Black Comedy (Donmar Warehouse), Mammals (tour), King Lear (RSC), Witness for the Prosecution, Lady Windermere’s Fan, Dear Brutus (Pitlochry Festival Theatre) and Faithless (National Studio). Her television credits include My Lady Jane, Rain Dogs, Fifteen-Love, The Dirty Black Dog, Hotel Portifino, Compulsion, The Watch, The Split, Pennyworth, Time Wasters, Ordeal by Innocence, Trust, The Crown, Flowers, Shetland, New Blood, The Last Dragon Slayer, Grantchester, Inside No. 9, Fleming, Penny Dreadful, Downton Abbey, Mapp & Lucia, A Touch of Cloth, Pramface, Hustle, Waking the Dead, Lewis, Miranda, The Hour, We’ll Take Manhattan, Hidden, My Family, Marple: Murder Made Easy, Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars, Suburban Shootout, The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton, Rebus, Spools, A Waste of Shame: Shakespeare and His Sonnets, Blue Dove, Roman Road, Forty Something, Doc Martin, Tipping the Velvet, Cazalet Chronicles, The Vise, Karaoke / Cold Lazarus, Pride and Prejudice, Poirot, Inspector Morse: Cherubin and Seraphim, Jupiter Moon and Longitude; and for film, Stromboli, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, Come Away, Nativity Rocks!, Benjamin, The Happy Prince, For Love or Money, Love of My Life, The Carer, This Beautiful Fantastic, Testament of Youth, How I Live Now, Hysteria, St. Trinians, Breaking and Entering, The Best Man, , The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Agent Cody Banks, What a Girl Wants, The Dreamers, Cruch, Heart, Fairy Tale (One Golden Afternoon), The Man Who Knew Too Little, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Staggered, Princess Caraboo and Killing Dad.
Michael Oakley directs. His theatre credits include Infamous(Jermyn Street Theatre), Gin Craze! (Royal & Derngate), Wuthering Heights (Oxford Shakespeare Company), Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe), No F*cks Given (VAULT Festival), The Invisible (Bush Theatre), The Life and Times of Fanny Hill (Bristol Old Vic), Variation on a Theme (Finborough Theatre), Playhouse Creatures (Theatre on the Fly, Chichester Festival Theatre), The Changeling (Southwark Playhouse Borough).
Orange Tree Theatre presents the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of
BEN AND IMO
By Mark Ravenhill
Directed by Erica Whyman
Starring Samuel Barnett and Victoria Yeates
19 April – 17 May 2025
Ben, I don’t believe that anyone has ever told you what to do.
Benjamin Britten is under pressure and on a deadline. He has just nine months to write a wildly ambitious new opera to celebrate the Coronation of Elizabeth II – and he isn’t entirely sure he wants to. And then he meets Imogen Holst: daughter of Gustav, multi-talented musician, and all-round force of nature. As storms lash the Aldeburgh beaches, Ben and Imo race against the clock to compose an opera fit for a monarch – and test the very edges of their passionate friendship.
Mark Ravenhill’s funny and fascinating new play probes the emotional – and financial – cost of making art that matters. Ravenhill, one of the most exciting voices of his generation, shot to fame with Shopping and F*cking at the Royal Court, and has written numerous plays for the RSC and National Theatre.
Mark Ravenhill’s plays include The Cane (Royal Court Theatre), Galileo, The Boy in The Dress (Royal Shakespeare Theatre), The Cut (Donmar Warehouse), Pool No Water (Frantic Assembly, Lyric Hammersmith), Mother Clap’s Molly House, Citizenship (National Theatre), Faust Is Dead, Handbag (UK tour), Some Explicit Polaroids (Ambassadors Theatre), Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (UK tour), Over There (Royal Court Theatre) and Shopping and F*cking (Royal Court Theatre, West End, UK and international tour). His work in musical theatre includes the lyrics for a song cycle for Marc Almond, Ten Plagues (Traverse Theatre), a new English version of Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea (King’s Head Theatre) and libretto for Elysium (Norwegian National Opera).
Samuel Barnett reprises his role as Ben having originated the role at the RSC. His theatre credits include The History Boys (National Theatre, Broadhurst Theatre), Rock Follies (Chichester Festival Theatre), Feeling Afraid as If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), Straight Line Crazy, Allelujah! (Bridge Theatre), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Chichester Theatre and National Theatre), Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Dealer’s Choice (Menier Chocolate Factory), An Oak Tree, The Beaux Stratagem, His Dark Materials, Women Beware Women (National Theatre), Richard III, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare’s Globe, Apollo Theatre and Belasco Theatre). For television, his credits include Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (as the titular role of Dirk Gently), Penny Dreadful, Not Safe for Work, Twenty Twelve, Beautiful People, John Adams and Strange. For film, his credits include And Mrs, Lee, The History Boys, Mrs Henderson Presents, Bright Star, Jupiter Ascending and The Lady in the Van.
Victoria Yeates reprises her role as Imo having originated the role at the RSC. Her theatre credits include The Dogwalker (Jermyn Street Theatre), The Crucible (UK tour), Private Lives, The League of Youth (Nottingham Playhouse), Noises Off (New Wolsey Theatre) and Rookery Nook (Menier Chocolate Factory). Her television credits include Call the Midwife (as series regular Sister Winifred), A Discovery of Witches and Lip Service; and for film, credits include Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Erica Whyman was Acting Artistic Director for the RSC from 2021-2023. Her directing credits for the RSC include Hecuba, The Seven Acts of Mercy, Miss Littlewood (Swan Theatre), Hamnet (Swan Theatre, Garrick Theatre), The Ant and the Cicada, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again, The Earthworks (The Other Place), The Christmas Truce (Royal Shakespeare Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Play for the Nation, Romeo and Juliet (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Barbican and UK tour), A Museum in Baghdad (Swan Theatre and Kiln Theatre).
By Terence Rattigan
Directed by Amelia Sears
24 May – 5 July 2025
Honesty between people who love each other is the thing that matters least in this life.
England, 1973. Estonian refugee Lydia and her Marxist literary critic husband Sebastian both worked in wartime intelligence. They excel at keeping secrets – from friends, from each other, and even from themselves. But their world is crumbling. The arrival of Lydia’s admirer, a best-selling American author, sparks their complex deceptions into an explosion of family truths.
A perceptive and deeply moving drama, In Praise of Love is Rattigan’s penultimate play, and loosely based on the relationship between the actor Rex Harrison and his wife Kay Kendall. Orange Tree audiences loved Terence Rattigan’s French Without Tears and While the Sun Shines. This is a rare chance to see a haunting and provocative play by one of the twentieth century’s most popular playwrights.
Terence Rattigan was one of Britain’s greatest playwrights. His plays include French Without Tears, After the Dance, Flare Path, Love In Idleness, While the Sun Shines, The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, Harlequinade, Adventure Story, Who is Sylvia?, The Deep Blue Sea, The Sleeping Prince, Separate Tables, Variation on a Theme, Ross, Man and Boy, A Bequest to the Nation and Cause Célèbre. His screenplays include French Without Tears, The Way to the Stars, Journey Together, While the Sun Shines, The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, The Prince and the Showgirl, Separate Tables, The Sound Barrier, The Man Who Loved Redheads, The Deep Blue Sea, Goodbye Mr Chips, Conduct Unbecoming and A Bequest to the Nation. His television plays include Heart to Heart, All On Her Own and High Summer.
Amelia Sears’ directing credits include Years of Sunlight (Theatre503), Home, Brimstone and Treacle, Ant Street (Arcola Theatre), The Girl’s Guide to Saving the World (HighTide Festival), Pedestrian (Bristol Old Vic, Underbelly and UK tour) and The Last Five Years (Duchess Theatre). As Associate Director credits include Ghosts (Duchess Theatre), Twelfth Night (Donmar Warehouse season at Wyndham’s Theatre), Bliss (Royal Court Theatre), One Evening, Four Quartets (Lincoln Centre), Al Gran Sole Carico D’Amore (Salzburg Opera Festival), Some Trace of Her, The Year of Magical Thinking and Statement of Regret (National Theatre).
The season continues…
POOR CLARE
By Chiara Atik
Directed by Blanche McIntyre
Meet Clare – just a regular noblewoman living her best life in medieval Italy. Everything is totally fine, until she meets this crazy man called Francis ranting in the streets. Poor Clare is a hilarious and off-beat comedy based on the stories of Saint Clare and Saint Francis of Assisi.
DANCE OF DEATH
By August Strindberg
Adapted and directed by Richard Eyre
Alice and Edgar live on a remote island, locked in a toxic marriage. When a rare visitor arrives to celebrate their wedding anniversary, Alice and Edgar seize their chance to take their terrifying games to a new level.
HEDDA
By Tanika Gupta
Inspired by Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen
Chelsea, 1948. The war is over, India is independent, and movie star Hedda Gabler has retired early and moved to London with her film director husband. But ghosts from Hedda’s past are returning.
THE RIVALS
By Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Directed by Tom Littler
Bath, 1775. The cream of British society is here to look for marriage. Lydia Languish – filthy rich and hopelessly romantic – has set her sights on a penniless soldier, much to the disapproval of her aunt, the word-mangling Mrs Malaprop…
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
By Chinonyerem Odimba
Inspired by Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll’s magical tale of the adventures of Alice and the fantastical characters she meets along the way has long been a family favourite. Take a trip down the rabbit hole with us for our Young Company’s festive extravaganza, in Chinonyerem Odimba’s brand new version of the timeless classic.
