The Orange Tree Theatre is a unique and special theatre, located near to Richmond Train Station.

Nub News recently sat down with Tom Littler, Artistic Director and joint CEO to find out more about its history, the part it plays in the community and what's coming up in 2024.

Nub News sat down with Tom Littler, Artistic Director and joint CEO. (Photo Credit: Ellie Kurttz).

The theatre opened 52 years ago, at the very end of 1971 when a group of actors who used to drink at the Orange Tree pub decided that they wanted to found a theatre.

Tom said: "Sam Walters and his wife Auriol Smith, who was also a director, founded what was a very early kind of fringe theatre in the room above the Orange Tree pub.

"As they couldn't afford to have extra lighting they did plays at lunchtimes; they put a circle of chairs around the edge of the room and they performed in the middle of the room.

Martina Laird in Meeting, photo by Marc Brenner

"They decided they weren't going to have any sets and they started doing rediscoveries of plays that had been forgotten alongside new plays and work with children and young people."

The theatre moved from the pub to its current location in the early nineties, but the theatre has remained in the round, with the audience sitting around the stage and the actors performing at the centre.

Tom explained that this kind of staging gives the audience a very special sort of access to the actors: "It means that every single person in the theatre is really close and it means there's nothing presentational about it.

"There's just very easy communication between audience and actor.

"That is sort of the defining thing about how we programme and produce the work here – it's all about the relationship between the actor and audience."

Tom added that he thinks of the Orange Tree as 'the theatre of the heart', a type of theatre that really reaches out and grabs you on a really personal level – made possible by the unique staging.

He said: "The best thing about working at the Orange Tree is that it's a really lovely family atmosphere here, it's a lovely team. We're also supported hugely by the community and our audiences who really care about the theatre.

Freddie Fox and Tanya Reynolds in She Stoops to Conquer, photo by Marc Brenner

He added: "Because we're on the edge of London we can also attract some really amazing set designers, directors and actors to work here."

The Orange Tree also does a lot of outreach work within the local community, especially with young people.

For example, each year they do a Primary Shakespeare project, where they take a Shakespeare play and cut it down to around an hour for Primary age children who have workshops at their school, and then come to the theatre to watch a production.

Tom said: "It's always a really fun, enjoyable production, and for many local children it's their first experience of theatre."

They also work with an organisation called Flute Theatre, which works with young adults with autism to put on a piece of theatre.

Pete Ashmore, Robert Maskell and Jane Asher in The Circle, photo by Ellie Kurttz

Tom said: "It's quite an amazing thing to witness – people who are often completely non-verbal speaking in front of their parents, sometimes for the first time. It's an example of the widest possible application of what theatre can be."

The Orange Tree has a huge variety of exciting productions coming up in 2024, including Northanger Abbey, Uncle Vanya, and Twelfth Night, as well as a range of participatory workshops, classes and courses for all ages.

Find out more at orangetreetheatre.co.uk

The Orange Tree Theatre is a sponsor of Richmond Nub News, without our sponsors, ouronline newspaper would not be possible.