Orange Tree Presents Seven Shaw Plays & PiratesDate: 20 July 2006
Richmond’s Orange Tree Theatre has announced its autumn-winter schedule for 2006, including major works by Bernard Shaw and The Pirates of Penzance.
Kicking off the season from 8 September to 14 October (previews from 6 September) is Harley Granville Barker’s The Madras House. First produced in 1910, Granville Barker revived the text for a 1925 production. The play about sex, power and the role of women at the turn of the 20th century was performed at the National in 1977 (where Granville Barker’s The Voysey Inheritance returns this summer after a run earlier this year (See News, 14 Jun 2006). It was last produced by the Lyric Hammersmith in 1992 as part of the Edinburgh Festival’s Granville Barker retrospective. Sam Walters directs the Orange Tree revival.
Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara, first produced in 1905 at the Royal Court, explores the conflict between idealism and practicality as Major Barbara of the Salvation Army finds herself opposing her father, an unashamed maker of cannons. The provocative play is directed by Sam Walters, and runs from 20 October to 11 November (previews from 18 October), and then returns from 27 November to 9 December.
During the break in the run of Major Barbara, audiences will be able to see six other Shaw plays, in two triple bills of his short works: Augustus Does His Bit, O’Flaherty VC and Press Cuttings, and How He Lied to Her Husband, Overruled and Village Wooing run from 13 to 25 November.
The Orange Tree’s Christmas show is a reworking of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance by Chris Monks, who’s version of The Mikado enjoyed a successful run at the theatre in 2004. Originally written for the New Victoria Theatre in Newcastle under Lyme, the lively production of the classic operetta sees the inept band of plunderers appear as Mafiosi, complete with dark glasses. The Pirates of Penzance runs from 22 December 2006 to 10 February 2007 (previews from 20 December).
- by Caroline Ansdell
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