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Box office020 8940 3633

Saturday Seminar: Cranford

9 January 2027

Running time 

1 hour 30 minutes

Rated 

all ages

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Sat9thJan11:00am

Join us in early 2026 for a discussion around the life and work of Elizabeth Gaskell, the often overlooked Victorian novelist who penned Cranford in 1853.

Our guest speaker for this event is Dr Charlie Lee-Potter, a journalist, academic and multi-disciplinary artist, who will explore how Gaskell’s works can be seen alongside other writers of her day, including Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë. OT Deputy Artistic Director Georgia Green will chair this discussion, which will be a fascinating exploration of many of the key themes of the novel, and the wider world of mid nineteenth-century British literature. 

Dr Charlie Lee-Potter is an award-winning journalist, poet, artist and academic. She holds doctorates in both English Literature and Fine Art and is the Geoffrey Garton Creative Arts Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford and lecturer in English at Hertford College, Oxford. She’s a specialist in the Victorian novel, the works of Gaskell and the Brontë sisters in particular.
 
Charlie’s interest in nineteenth-century literature blends into her art and poetry practice. She takes fictional women and transmutes them into installations and sculptural objects, while her recent art exhibition and poetry collection, A Line is a Breathless Length, transformed her poems into textual and textural objects using experimental materials.
 
Charlie’s work has received recognition across multiple fields. She’s the recipient of both the International Créateurs Prize for Creative Journalism and the Printmakers Council Art Prize. Her podcast exploring the creative imagination, Inside A Mountain, was shortlisted for the International Women’s Podcast Awards. She’s a former BBC foreign correspondent and documentary maker and presented several of BBC Radio 4’s flagship programmes, including PM, The World at One, The World Tonight, The World This Weekend and Open Book.

Georgia Green is Deputy Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre. She is also Associate Director of Into the Woods at the Noël Coward Theatre, following its run at the Bridge Theatre. She was previously Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio and Staff Director on The Grapes of Wrath and Infinite Life for the National Theatre. As director, her work includes Vincent in Brixton at the Orange Tree Theatre; The Winslow Boy and Gloria at RADA; The EU Killed My Dad at Jermyn Street Theatre; Invisible at the Bush Theatre and 59E59 in New York; Ruckus at Southwark Playhouse, Edinburgh Summerhall and on UK tour; Pilgrims at Guildhall School of Music & Drama; Three Sisters, Blue Stockings and You Got Older at LAMDA; Human Animals at RWCMD; Twelfth Night at ALRA; Parliament Square at Rose Bruford; and OUTSIDE and The Mikvah Project at the Orange Tree Theatre. She was nominated for Best Director at the Stage Debut Awards for The Mikvah Project. Radio work includes directing The Get for BBC Radio 3 and The Mikvah Project for BBC Radio 4. Georgia has been a lead facilitator with Cardboard Citizens and teaches on the MA Directing course at LAMDA.
 

Our Saturday Seminars offer audiences the chance to go beyond the stage. Taking place on selected Saturdays during the season, these engaging talks invite leading academics, authors, and cultural commentators to explore the world behind our productions.

From unpicking historical detail to examining social and political themes, each seminar is designed to deepen your understanding of the play and enrich your theatre experience.

Previous speakers have included renowned broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby, Martin Fitzpatrick, Head of Music at English National Opera, and Dr Will Tosh of Shakespeare’s Globe.

Whether you’re a curious newcomer or a seasoned theatregoer, Saturday Seminars promise fresh perspectives, lively discussion, and new ways to connect with the stories we tell.

All tickets £15.