New Orange Tree season premieres White House scandal play at election time
Sam Walters, the longest-serving artistic director in London, has announced his 41st season at the Orange Tree Theatre, which features two UK premieres, including a provocative US murder drama to coincide with the US Presidential election.
The White House Murder Case, a 1970 play by famed American cartoonist Jules Feiffer will be directed by Christopher Morahan in his first turn at the Orange Tree since 2006. The play charts a US presidential election against the backdrop of an inadvertent military massacre by nerve gas, in which the intrigue culminates with the eponymous murder in the White House itself.
Running 12 October (previews from 10 October) and closing 10 November, it coincides perfectly with the closing phases of Barack Obama’s battle with Mitt Romney, the vote for which takes place on 6 November.
Elsewhere in the programming, Walters opens with Yours for the Asking, a play from 1973 by Spanish playwright Ana Diosdado which was written in Franco-era Spain. The play has never been performed in the UK before. Running 7 September to 6 October 2012 (previews from 5 September), it tells the story of a journalist’s chaotic hunt for the real news at the heart of an advertising scandal.
The recent vogue for Ibsen revivals also continues at the Orange Tree with a new ‘version’ by Don Carleton of Love’s Comedy, which will also be the directorial debut of actor David Antrobus. This very early work by the Norwegian great is billed as a “bittersweet comedy” and shows the struggle of a revolutionary musician-poet to come to terms with falling in love.
Walters’ second directorial contribution rounds off the Autumn/Winter with classic French farce Sauce for the Goose by Georges Feydeau, which runs 21 December 2012 to 2 February 2013 (previews from 19 December).
