New season announced at Orange Tree theatre

Artistic director Paul Miller has announced his new season at the Orange Tree Theatre.

The Richmond venue lost its Arts Council funding last year ahead of Miller's first season, which attracted an average audience capacity of 90%.

The new season opens with the first major revival of Sharman Macdonald's When We Were Women (3 September – 3 October 2015), in a co-production with Snapdragon, directed by their artistic director Eleanor Rhode.

First seen at the National Theatre in 1988, the play is an evocative portrayal of family life in Second World War Glasgow.

Next up, Paul Miller revives Terence Rattigan's 1936 comedy French Without Tears (8 October-21 November), about a group of young men learning skills of language and love at a summer school.

Following a sell-out run in 2014, Deborah Bruce's The Distance (26 November-19 December) returns in a co-production with Sheffield Theatres. And Michael Morpurgo's I Believe in Unicorns visits the Orange Tree for a Christmas run from 23 December to 9 January.

Elsewhere, as previously reported, the Orange Tree's production of Alistair McDowall's Pomona will transfer to the National Theatre and Royal Exchange.

Announcing the season, Miller said: "We are no longer regularly funded by the Arts Council but our spirit of adventure remains strong: more new work is in the pipeline for early in 2016 and we're really proud to be collaborating with Snapdragon, Sheffield Theatres, Wizard, the NT and the Royal Exchange to deliver this autumn's five exciting productions."