9:00am Sunday 23rd December 2012
By Amy Dyduch
A comic tale of a banker in crisis and two contrasting productions about 1920s women who seemingly have it all are highlights of the spring season at the Orange Tree Theatre.
Kicking off the year is the UK premiere of Rutherford and Son writer Githa Sowerby’s The Stepmother, which runs from February 6 to March 9.
The play tells the tale of a young stepmother who appears to be in charge of her family and thriving business but her roles of wife, mother and businesswoman are tested during 1924.
To mark next year’s centenary of the Suffragette Pilgrimage to Hyde Park, a story by another female playwright comes to Richmond from March 13 to April 13.
The Man Who Paid the Piper is about economic power and gender and remains as relevant today as when it was written.
The season continues with Somerset Maugham’s comedy, the Breadwinner, centring on a city banker in trouble at the stock exchange and unable to provide for his family, running from April 17 to May 18.
Next up will be the Seven Year Twitch, a comedy about modern marital calamity from David Lewis, to run from May 22 to June 22.
The season concludes with a festival of nine short plays from the theatre’s writers group, which forms a showcase production for trainee directors, from June 26 to July 13.
The Orange Tree Youth Theatre also perform Anya Reiss’s new play Forty-Five Minutes as part of National Theatre Connections on March 16 and 17.
The production plays out every student’s fear when the Ucas deadline goes wrong, leaving pupils with only 45 minutes to send all-important forms and secure future plans.
Members priority booking for all spring season productions is open and public booking opened on December 10. Visit orangetreetheatre.co.uk or call 020 8940 3633.
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