12 MAY - 25 JUNE
PRESS NIGHT: MON 16 MAY AT 7.00PM
An Orange Tree Theatre production
The Philanderer
BY BERNARD SHAW
DirectorPaul Miller
Designer Simon Daw
Lighting Designer Mark Doubleday
Sound Designer & ComposerIsobel Waller-Bridge
Costume Supervisor Clio Alphas
Casting Consultant Alastair Coomer
Cast Helen Bradbury, Joe Idris-Roberts, Michael Lumsden, Dorothea Myer-Bennett, Christopher Staines, Mark Tandy, Paksie Vernon and Rupert Young
Rupert Young (High Society at The Old Vic, Sir Leon in BBC's Merlin) plays Leonard Charteris, the philanderer of the title. Following the sell-out success of Paul Miller’s production of Bernard Shaw’s first play Widowers’ Houses, we present another of Shaw's early comedies, not seen in London in a generation.
Advanced people form charming friendships: conventional people marry.
A man in love with two women. But what do the women really want from him? A disgraced doctor falls in love with one of them – and then with the other. In the ensuing power struggle, the new feminism is up against the old machismo. In the end, will it be the law that has the last word on their chance of happiness?
Frankness and kindness: one is as bad as the other. Especially frankness. I’ve tried both.
Shaw at his wittiest. Marital arrangements, divorce laws and medical ethics all feature in this brilliantly funny story of four young people’s clumsy attempts at making their lives make sense.
Paul Miller is Artistic Director of the Orange Tree where he has directed Terence Rattigan's French Without Tears, Doris Lessing’s Each His Own Wilderness, Bernard Shaw’s Widowers’ Houses and The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd by DH Lawrence. Between 2009 and 2014 he was an Associate Director at Sheffield Theatres, where his productions included Wonderful Tennessee by Brian Friel, The Winter’s Tale, The Daughter-in-Law by DH Lawrence, Democracy by Michael Frayn (which transferred to the Old Vic), Hamlet with John Simm and True West by Sam Shepard.
For the National Theatre he has directed The History Boys (revival for the West End and UK tour), Baby Girl by Roy Williams, DNA by Dennis Kelly, The Miracle by Lin Coghlan, The Enchantment by Victoria Benedictsson, Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads by Roy Williams in the Cottesloe, and The Associate by Simon Bent in The Loft. Other work includes the Olivier Award-nominated Elling with John Simm, adapted by Simon Bent at the Bush and Trafalgar Studios.
Helen Bradbury's (Grace Tranfield) work in theatre includes The Cocktail Party (The Print Room); Versailles (Donmar Warehouse); My Generation (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Our Country's Good and Top Girls (Out of Joint); The Last Duchess (Hampstead). TV includes Bloody Queens, The Dresser, The Outcast, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Lucan, Sherlock, The Paradise and The Borgias.
Joe Idris-Roberts (Page/Spedding)recently graduated from RADA.
Michael Lumsden (Colonel Craven) Theatre includes Middlemarch, Mary Broome, The Years Between and Mary Goes First(Orange Tree); Killjoy and Last Confessions of a Scallywag (Mill at Sonning); Entertaining Angels (Chichester/UK tour). Radio includes playing The Archers regular Alistair Lloyd.
Dorothea Myer-Bennett(Julia Craven)Theatre includes The Merchant of Venice and Pericles (Shakespeare's Globe); Richard III and Uncle Vanya (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Arcadia, As You Like It, King Lear, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Cherry Orchard, The Comedy of Errors and The Misanthrope (Tobacco Factory, Bristol). Film includes The Honourable Rebel, The Orchard and The Payback.
Christopher Staines (Dr Paramore) Theatre includes The Great Gatsby (Arts Theatre); Playing for Time (Sheffield Crucible); Our Town (Almeida); Duck, Death and the Tulip (Orange Tree); and Doctor Faustus (Rose Theatre, Bankside).
Mark Tandy(Cuthbertson)Theatre includes Eldorado (Arcola); Lot and His God (The Print Room); Racing Demon (Sheffield Crucible); Mrs Warren's Profession (Theatre Royal Bath/West End); The Years Between (Orange Tree); The Voysey Inheritance and Luther (National Theatre); and Richard II (The Old Vic). TV includes The Crown, Silent Witness, The Hollow Crown: Henry IV, Silkm Garrow's Law, Shackleton and Longitude.
Paksie Vernon (Sylvia Craven) Theatre includes Threads (Stellar Quines); Three Sisters (Collisions Festival); Little Sure Shot, James and the Giant Peach and The Jungle Book (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Changeling (Oran Mor). TV includes Eve and Shetland.
Rupert Young(Leonard Charteris) Theatre includes CK Dexter Haven in High Society (The Old Vic), Tonight at 8.30 (Nuffield Theatre and tour), Bobby in Company (Southwark Playhouse), and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe). TV includes Sir Leon in five series of Merlin and The White Queen (BBC). Film includes Dirty Filthy Love.
@OrangeTreeThtr #ThePhilanderer
PRESS CONTACTBen Clare 020 8940
The Orange Tree Theatre aims to stir, delight, challenge, move and amaze with a bold and continually evolving mix of new and re-discovered plays in our unique in-the-round space. We want to change lives by telling remarkable stories from a wide variety of times and places, filtered through the singular imagination of our writers and the remarkable close-up presence of our actors.
A theatre of this scale, with the audience wrapped around the players, invites acting to be the centre of the experience. This is theatre as a figurative art: the human being literally at its centre. We want to experience voices and stories from our past and our present alongside visions of the future. Life as it's lived: unplugged and un-miked. Close-up magic. Truths the hand can touch.
Over its 44-year history the Orange Tree has had a very strong track record in discovering writers and promoting their early work, as well re-discovering artists from the past whose work had either been disregarded or forgotten. Over the past eighteen months the work of Terence Rattigan, Doris Lessing, Mustapha Matura, Bernard Shaw, Sharman Macdonald and DH Lawrence has played alongside new work by Alistair McDowall, Alice Birch, Deborah Bruce and Adam Barnard.
Artistic Director Paul MillerExecutive Director Sarah Nicholson
The Orange Tree is a registered charity (no. 266128) and is generously supported by the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Listings Information
Orange Tree Theatre
1 Clarence Street, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 2SA
Box Office: orangetreetheatre.co.uk | 020 8940 3633 (open 10am to 6.30pm Mon-Sat).
Transport: Richmond (District Line, London Overground and South West Trains to/from Waterloo).
Twitter @OrangeTreeThtr
NO BOOKING FEES
Ticket Prices
Previews £15 | Mon – Thu evenings & matinees £20 | Fri & sat evenings £25
Under 30s £12 (tickets available for Mon - Thu eve performances)
Standing £10 (when all seats have been sold)
Concessions £15 concession tickets are available for Monday evenings and midweek matinees to over 60s, students, recipients of state benefit and members of theatre unions and guilds on presentation of proof. £15 tickets available for disabled patrons plus one escort at the same rate; £10 tickets available for blind or partially-sighted patrons and an escort at the same price for audio-described performances.
The Philanderer
by Bernard Shaw
12 May - 25 June 2016
Times Mon - Sat eves 7.30pm (7.00pm on Mon 16 May) | Thu & Sat mats 2.30pm (not 12 & 14 May)
No performance 30 May
Post-show talks Thu 26 May 2.30pm & Wed 1 June 7.30pm
Audio-described performance Tue 14 June 7.30pm & Sat 18 June 2.30pm