The Theatre

The Orange Tree Theatre, London's only permanent theatre in-the-round, is one of the most highly respected off-West-End venues. Our unique space creates a powerful intimacy between audience and performer, a truly shared experience. We're entirely committed to this form of theatre and each and every production is in the round.

On New Year’s Eve 2011 the Orange Tree Theatre turned 40.

Sam Walters is the longest-serving Artistic Director in the country, having directed the first performance of Go Tell It On Table Mountain at lunchtime on 31 December 1971.
Until 1991, the theatre was situated above the Orange Tree pub in Richmond, before moving across the road into the purpose-built building it still occupies today – London’s only permanent in-the-round space.
Over the past 40 years, this intimate 172-seat theatre has produced a succession of new, neglected and re-discovered work from the UK and abroad, including 12 plays by the late Vaclav Havel – a collaborative relationship which would go on to span 30 years after Walters fortuitously programmed Audience and Private View by Havel in 1977 just as Charter 77 burst forth upon the political scene. The 2008 production of Havel’s Leaving was a particular highlight for us – the first that Havel saw himself.
We've also run a successful trainee director scheme since 1986. Many notable past and current Artistic Directors have passed through the Orange Tree’s hands, including Anthony Clark, Sean Holmes, Dominic Hill, Rachel Kavanaugh, Timothy Sheader and Ellie Jones.
The New Year’s Eve celebrations saw a special birthday performance of The Charity That Began At Home, directed by Auriol Smith. After the performance, Sam Walters gave a brief speech to the full house and also commented on how he had worked out that the evening’s audience had paid 160 times more for their ticket than those at the very first performance 40 years ago had paid! Afterwards, the company enjoyed a celebratory toast with the audience in the bar, and also shared a specially-made birthday cake which was kindly donated by a long-standing volunteer to the theatre.

The Orange Tree Theatre is a registered charity (266728) and a company limited by guarantee (1113093). It is governed by a Board of Directors who perform the duties of charity trustees.

Board members: Jules Boardman, Frances Bouchier, Judith Coke, Victoria Colclough, John Faulkner, Robert Guy, Sanjit Sil, Fiona Haigh, Eleanor Stanier, Judith Strong, Juliet Thompson and Ian Woods.

Green Orange Tree Theatre

The Orange Tree Theatre believes that we all have a responsibility to care for and protect the environment in which we operate. We are working to create a ‘greener' Orange Tree and our staff have adopted a number of green measures in an effort to protect our planet. In particular we are striving to reduce the energy we use and have implemented several measures to aid us in this.

Auditorium

The auditorium seats 172 with two levels: the 'lower' with comfortable bench style seating which places you on a level with the action and the 'upper' with individual seats and just one row of seating around the perimeter of the space that allows you to view the action from above. No seats have a restricted view and there is no difference in pricing. All seating is unreserved.

Foyer and bar

The bar opens 45 minutes before each performance serving a variety of drinks and bar snacks at reasonable prices.

Artistic Director Sam Walters, Associate Director Auriol Smith and The Charity That Began At Home cast with the 40th Birthday cake on New Year’s Eve 2011.