Adeyinka Akinrinade, Nicholas Armfield, Matthew Douglas, Cate Hamer, Luke MacGregor, Dylan Mason, Robert Neumark Jones, Eve Ponsonby, Gyuri Sarossy and Nathan Welsh will feature in the 2019 Directors’ Festival at the Orange Tree Theatre. The festival is a programme of four productions in repertoire from 3 – 11 August: the UK premieres of Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography written by Australia’s Declan Greene and Sadness and Joy in the Life of Giraffes written by Portugal’s Tiago Rodrigues, and revivals of The Mikvah Project written by Josh Azouz (Buggy Baby) and Pilgrims written by Elinor Cook (Out of Love).
The productions will be directed by Gianluca Lello, Ellie Goodall, Georgia Green and Wiebke Green, who have been studying on the Orange Tree Theatre and St Mary’s University MA Theatre Directing course. This is the third cohort of a unique Masters course providing the theatre directors of the future with an exciting year-long training based at the Orange Tree. It is the only course of its kind in the country to be predominantly housed within a producing theatre. Throughout the season they have assisted directors Imogen Bond, Selina Cadell, Guy Jones, Richard Twyman, Chelsea Walker, and Matthew Xia.
The productions are designed by Cory Shipp, with lighting by Chris McDonnell, Sound by Lex Kosanke and casting by Sarah Murray.
All tickets are £10 | 2 plays for £15
Production information
THE MIKVAH PROJECT
by Josh Azouz
Directed by Georgia Green
Cast Dylan Mason and Robert Neumark Jones
Sat 3 & Thu 8 Aug at 7pm | Tue 6 & Sat 10 Aug at 9pm
- Now what?
- We try and part.
Eitan is 17. Avi is 35.
Eitan loves Arsenal. Avi loves his wife. Eitan goes to college. Avi is trying for a child.
They are in completely different places in their lives.
Yet, every Friday, Eitan and Avi meet at the Mikvah to take part in the Jewish ritual of submerging in the water.
As they chat about life in the synagogue, football, the nature of marriage and desire they form an unexpected bond that threatens to disrupt life outside the Mikvah.
From the writer of smash hit Buggy Baby and Victoria’s Knickers, Josh Azouz’s The Mikvah Project is a play about love in impossible circumstance.
Filled with singing and water, chutzpah and joy, we are reminded how easily a heart can break.
Dylan Mason’s theatre includes Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre); 42nd Street (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); The Dog Beneath the Skin (Arcola); The Trackers of Oxyrhnynchus (Finborough); Never Let Me Go, Son of Rambow (Southampton Nuffield Theatres); The Window in the Willows (Plymouth/Salford/Southampton); Wonder.land (Theatre du Chatelet); Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Open Air Theatre); and Anything Goes (Sheffield Crucible/national tour).
Robert Neumark Jones’ theatre includes One Jewish Boy (Ed Littlewood Productions); King Arthur (Story Pocket Theatre); Bang Bang (John Cleese/Made in Colchester); The Tempest (London Theatre Workshop); and But A Dream (Sovereign Arts). TV includes Resting, Spotless, Grange Hill and Hope and Glory.
PILGRIMS
by Elinor Cook
Directed by Ellie Goodall
Cast Adeyinka Akinrinade, Nicholas Armfield and Luke MacGregor
Mon 5 Aug & Fri 9 Aug 9pm | Wed 7 Aug at 7pm | Sun 11 Aug 4pm
There's always a man.
Going off to war, in a ship.
In a uniform.
And there's a woman, often called Nancy.
Nancy is on the dock, looking nice, waving a handkerchief.
And she says, hang on, can't I just come with you?
Rachel wants to write about folk songs and war and women, especially their urge to escape.
Will and Dan are mountain climbers, adventurers, conquering peak after peak.
A tale about love, adventure and betrayal. But how are stories told, and whose version is remembered?
Award-winning playwright Elinor Cook returns to the Orange Tree, following her critically acclaimed play Out of Love in 2018.
Adeyinka Akinrinade’s theatre credits include Tartuffe (National Theatre); Chalk Horses Might Fly (Theatre503); A Little to the Left of Centre (Full House Theatre); Riots to Revolution (Revolution); Threads (How It Ended); The Butterfly Catcher, Rip Ned (NGYT); Also By Mail (Hat Factory); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Rare Vision). TV includes Temple, Top Boy.
Nicholas Armfield’s theatre credits include Imperium Parts I & II (RSC).
Luke MacGregor’s theatre credits include Jude (Hampstead Theatre); The Winter’s Tale, Eyam (Shakespeare’s Globe); Titus Andronicus, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar (RSC/Barbican). TV includes Brave New World.
SADNESS AND JOY IN THE LIFE OF GIRAFFES
by Tiago Rodrigues
Translated by Mark O’Thomas
Directed by Wiebke Green
Cast Eve Ponsonby, Gyuri Sarossy and Nathan Welsh
Mon 5 & Fri 9 Aug 7pm | Wed 7 Aug 9pm | Sun 11 Aug 6pm
This is the sound of my voice in the bathroom.
This is the sound of a decision in the bathroom.
Giraffe is nine years, one month and twelve days old but she’s unusually tall for her
age. Her Dad can no longer afford the Discovery Channel, so she sets out on a quest
to find the money herself. Accompanied by her suicidal teddy bear Judy Garland, this
unstoppable duo adventure out to solve the problems grown-ups can’t.
This is the sound of opportunity.
In a city worn down by austerity politics, this UK premiere charts one girl’s heroic
journey through a chaotic adult world.
Tiago Rodrigues is the artistic director of Portugal’s Teatro Nacional D. Maria II. His plays
have been translated and performed throughout Europe and beyond, and his subversive and poetic theatre has made him one of Portugal’s leading contemporary artists.
Eve Ponsonby’s theatre credits include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre); The Stepmother, If Only (Chichester Festival Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre Royal Bath); Little Eyolf (Almeida Theatre); Shakespeare in Love (UK tour); ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Cheek By Jowl); Longing (Hampstead Theatre); Boys (Headlong); The Children’s Hour (Comedy Theatre); Prince of Denmark (National Theatre/NYT).
TV includes Grantchester, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The White Queen, Misfits, Above Suspicion. Film includes Frankenstein.
Gyuri Sarossy’s theatre credits include The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd (Orange Tree); Wendy and Peter Pan (Lyceum Edinburgh); Two Noble Kinsman, The Rover, The Seven Acts of Mercy, Romeo and Juliet (RSC); Creditors (Young Vic); The Absence of War, The Seagull (Headlong); Tonight at 8.30 (ETT/Nuffield Theatre); ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Cheek by Jowl); Earthquakes in London (Headlong/National Theatre); As You Like It (Royal Exchange Theatre); The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse); Macbeth (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory/Barbican); Twelfth Night, Uncle Vanya (Donmar Warehouse). TV includes Father Brown, Press, Coroner, Foyle’s War, Einstein and Eddington, Tchaikovsky and Egypt. Film includes Mercenaries and Another Life.
Nathan Welsh’s theatre includes Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Play About My Dad (Jermyn Street Theatre); The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse); Circa (Work Theatr/The Vaults, Waterloo). TV includes: Shetland, Trust Me, Obsession: Dark Desires, Navid and Johnny, and Living It. Film includes Days, Life Sentence and Much Ado About A Major Ting.
EIGHT GIGABYTES OF HARDCORE PORNOGRAPHY
by Declan Greene
Directed by Gianluca Lello
Cast Matthew Douglas and Cate Hamer
Sat 3 & Thu 8 Aug 9pm | Tue 6 & Sat 10 Aug 7pm
Welcome to the Too-Much-Information Age.
She’s a nurse with terrors for kids, debtors banging at the door and a shopping addiction.
He’s in IT, bored with his lot, trapped in a soulless marriage and addicted to porn.
Miserable, both hanker for something else.
They meet online.
No-strings sex seems like such a good idea.
Or then again…maybe not.
The UK premiere of a comedy about lust, loneliness and hard drive 21st century
dating, from the multi award-winning Australian writer Declan Greene.
Matthew Douglas’ theatre credits include Jesus Hopped the A Train (Young Vic); A Passage to India (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); An Inspector Calls (UK tour); Far from the Madding Crowd (Watermill); Cat on A Hot Tin Roof (Royal Exchange Theatre/Royal & Derngate, Northampton); The Widow of Mrs Holroyd (New Vic); The Wind in the Willows (Birmingham Rep); Travesties, The Importance of Being Earnest, Hamlet (Birmingham Rep); Salt Meets Wound (Theatre503); Hecuba (RSC); Othello (Cheek by Jowl). TV includes Outlander, Trial and Retribution, After Thomas, and The Great Escape. Film includes Miracle on the Hudson, and Papadopoulose and Sons.
Cate Hamer’s theatre credits include Kindertransport (Nottingham Playhouse); Talking Heads: Bed Among the Lentils (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Things I Know to Be True (Frantic Assembly/Lyric Hammersmith); House and Garden (Watermill); The National Joke, Just So Stories, The Swing of Things (Stephen Joseph Theatre); Abigail’s Party, Enlightenment, Suddenly Last Summer (Theatre by the Lake); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe); Indian Ink (Southwark Playhouse). TV includes The Town, When I’m 64, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, and Without Motive.
MA Theatre Directing course information
This MA Theatre Directing course – the only one of its kind in the UK to be predominantly housed in a producing theatre – sees MA students based at the multi award-winning Orange Tree Theatre and is designed to explore the art and techniques of theatre directing within the context of contemporary theatre making.
Modules are taught both by academics and theatre directors with the assistance of professional actors in the practical classes. The programme is both academic and vocational. It aims to provide an advanced understanding of theatre production processes within a context of both contemporary theatre making and the dramatic tradition. It further aims to develop students’ craft skills and technical abilities in order to prepare them for a career in theatre directing.
The programme is aimed both at graduates who wish to advance their understanding of theatre practice in order to develop their work to a professional standard and at theatre professionals who wish to formalise their experience with a course of study and a qualification.
ABOUT THE ORANGE TREE THEATRE
The Orange Tree (OT) is an award-winning, independent theatre. Recognised as a powerhouse that creates high-quality productions of new and rediscovered plays, we entertain 70,000 people across the UK every year.
The OT’s home in Richmond, South West London, is an intimate theatre with the audience seated all around the stage: watching a performance here is truly a unique experience.
We believe in the power of dramatic stories to entertain, thrill and challenge us; plays that enrich our lives by enhancing our understanding of ourselves and each other.
As a registered charity (266128) sitting at the heart of its community, we work with 10,000 people in Richmond and beyond through participatory theatre projects for people of all ages and abilities.
The Orange Tree Theatre’s mission is to enable audiences to experience the next generation of theatre talent, experiment with ground-breaking new drama and explore the plays from the past that inspire the theatre-makers of the present. To find out how you can help us to do that you can visit orangetreetheatre.co.uk/discover
Artistic Director Paul Miller
Executive Director Hanna Streeter
Website orangetreetheatre.co.uk | Email box.office@orangetreetheatre.co.uk
Twitter @OrangeTreeThtr | Facebook/Instagram OrangeTreeTheatre
ABOUT DRAMA ST MARY’S
Drama St Mary's is a creative centre which is both a learning environment and a context for professional creative work and community engagement. Their postgraduate courses are vocational programmes which aim to equip students with advanced industry skills but also provide the opportunity for artistic experiment and research. "We think it is particularly important that theatre should have social purpose and although we place the performer at the centre of our work there is a strong focus on the audience. We believe that theatre is about 'us' not about 'me'."
Listings information
Sat 3 Aug 7.00pm The Mikvah Project | 9.00pm Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography
Mon 5 Aug 7.00pm Sadness and Joy in the Life of Giraffes | 9.00pm Pilgrims
Tue 6 Aug 7.00pm Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography | 9.00pm The Mikvah Project
Wed 7 Aug 7.00pm Pilgrims | 9.00pm Sadness and Joy in the Life of Giraffes
Thu 8 Aug 7.00pm The Mikvah Project | 9.00pm Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography
Fri 9 Aug 7.00pm Sadness and Joy in the Life of Giraffes | 9.00pm Pilgrims
Sat 10 Aug 7.00pm Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography | 9.00pm The Mikvah Project
Sun 11 Aug 4.00pm Pilgrims | 6.00pm Sadness and Joy in the Life of Giraffes
Tickets £10
See 2 shows for £15
(NO BOOKING FEES)
Orange Tree Theatre, 1 Clarence Street, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 2SA
Box Office orangetreetheatre.co.uk | 020 8940 3633 (open 10am to 6pm Mon-Sat).
TRANSPORT
Trains Richmond Station (District Line, London Overground and South West Trains to/from Waterloo).
Buses 65, 190, 371, 391, 419, 490, 493, R68, R70, H22, H37, and N22 (night bus) all stop at Richmond Station. 33 and 337 also stop in central Richmond.
Cycling Bike storage facilities near the Theatre at the corner of Church Road and Kew Road,
and at Richmond Station.
Parking Pay and display parking is also available nearby. Old Deer Park car park (off the A316) is about a 5-minute walk to the theatre. Free parking after 6.30pm.
