UP CLOSE WITH: 'Very optimistic' Orange Tree director on theatre's future

In an exclusive interview, Paul Miller, the artistic director of Richmond's independent Orange Tree Theatre, reveals the company's plans to open their doors in the New Year.

Paul Miller is in a hopeful mood. Despite coming through the most extraordinary, and devastating, period in the theatre's history, he is looking forward to the future and plans to reopen to audiences at the start of 2021, as long as the science at the time and audience confidence allow.

"We now have a plan to reopen in the New Year," he said. "It is partly in the Government's hands but of course I have some sympathy for them. The science around gathering in small spaces is uncertain and we don't know when we will all feel comfortable. In the end it's going to be about all of us - when we feel comfortable to gather again in theatres."

Another lifeline

We speak days after the Government's announcement on July 5 of a £1.57 billion arts support package.

The theatre showed its joy by tweeting the next day: "We are delighted at the courage and imagination shown by Rishi Sunak and Oliver Dowden in their support for the arts today, and we owe a great debt to the people who negotiated on all our behalf.

"As an independent theatre support will be vital to us in facing the challenge ahead."

Sudden stop to shows

When lockdown was imposed, the theatre was running a production called The Mikvah Project, which explored the passion discovered by two men who attend the same synagogue. The two actors were told that very day not to come back.

"They cleared their rooms. It was very sad for them. They didn't even know they had done their last performance.

"We had to close the doors to our audiences and then do a rapid shut down of the building. It was devastating. Previously in society when there has been a crisis, emergency or convulsion, your local theatre has been the building where people turn to, where you can gather, have a protest or meeting and you expect to be in a situation to open the doors to gather.

"But opening our doors was the one thing we couldn't do."

Scale of economic hit

Paul is keenly aware that when the theatre closed its doors, it wasn't only the actors and the 13.5 permanent staff who were affected. Like all theatres, the Orange Tree supports a vast network of freelance workers.

"During a production there are front of house staff, the bar, the box office, the ushers and then a huge family of actors, technicians, composer, stage managers, costume supervisors and more. In an ordinary year we spend half a million pounds employing them. People might be surprised for a theatre of our size. That's a lot of money to spend - we are a big employer, and the fact that we are closed has serious implications."

This was underlined when Paul held a 'town hall' on Zoom and invited everybody who had worked with the Orange Tree during his five years. It was 670 people.

What the theatre's been up to in lockdown

"It shows that while people think of us as tiny we are a huge employer in the theatre scene. Also, the Orange Tree is both a local theatre and a national theatre so people come in to the borough and spend money in bars and restaurants and contribute to the local economy."

Despite the devastation of closure, Paul says the theatre can survive until the New Year. "The furlough job retention scheme was a huge lifeline for us. We embraced it as a way of keeping the theatre alive."

As an independent theatre, they have had to be creative. Further help came from a recording of Dame Judi Dench in conversation with Gyles Brandreth from three years ago. The two kindly agreed for it to be made available again for a small charge of £5 to watch.

Although the Orange Tree is no longer part of the Arts Council national portfolio, they did receive a small emergency grant, as well as support from Richmond Council.

A vote of confidence from customers

But Paul reserves his greatest thanks to the Orange Tree's supporters and audiences. "Three quarters of the money on ticket sales from March to September was either simply donated to us or the audience members were happy for us to hold it and keep it until they can come back. The vote of confidence that gave us was incredible. Hugely moving."

When the theatre does open, Paul is planning to return to the productions they had to abandon when the country went into lockdown. "We had a play called Last Easter by Bryony Lavery which we had to abandon. It's a wonderful play about four theatre people dealing with a crisis when one of them gets ill.

Optimism about the 'incredible space' returning

"I was due to revive a Terence Rattigan , While The Sun Shines. It's set in the war and is about people rallying round and the Blitz spirit. They both seem right for our times. We still don't know exactly what we'll be able to do and when, but I am feeling optimistic, very optimistic."

Paul is looking forward to the theatre coming back to life: "That incredible space, which has a touch of magic to it because it's somehow simple and unaffected and you are always in the room with the audience and actors together. It's the oldest form of theatre - gather round and we'll tell you a story."

He recounts a moment recently when he sat alone in the auditorium. "Without 180 people it's just the deadest place. It needs the audience. We need our audience back. But only when it's safe."

History of the Orange Tree

The Orange Tree was founded in 1971 by husband and wife team, artistic director Sam Walters and actor Auriol Smith. It started life in a small room above the Orange Tree pub, when the audience were seated on six church pews.

It's innovative approach and the quality of its productions attracted strong reviews, and audiences would queue on the stairs for tickets.

It became clear the theatre needed more space and by 1991 was able to move across the road to a former Victorian school house, its present home. £750,000 was raised for the conversion through an appeal by Richmond residents Sir Richard and Lady Attenborough.

It was vital to keep the very special, intimate atmosphere of the original theatre in the new space. The solution was a theatre in-the-round, with a small stage surrounded by seating for 180 people. Superfan Matthew Rees wrote in the Ham Life blog: "…the atmosphere is very intimate, particularly when the cast join the audience during the show, as they did in the auction scene in The Skin Game. In one play, about the Vietnam War, the on-stage discussion opened up to include the audience and I joined in!"

Paul Miller is the theatre's second artistic director. He was previously associate director at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre and took over when Sam Walters, the UK's longest running artistic director, retired in 2014.

The Orange Tree has pioneered new work as well as putting on classics. Since 2014 the theatre has won numerous awards, including ten Off West End Awards (known as Offies), five UK Theatre Awards and was the London regional winner of the UK's Most Welcoming Theatre Awards in 2017.