Paul Miller announces final season at Orange Tree Theatre

The Orange Tree Theatre has announced its new season, which continues its 50th anniversary celebrations.

The season, which also marks the final one for outgoing artistic director Paul Miller, includes revivals of Dael Orlandersmith's Yellowman, Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man and Sonali Bhattacharyya's Two Billion Beats, as well as the premiere of Ross Willis' Grim Brenda.

It will also include a production of the winner of the 2022 JMK Award, with the winning director and play to be announced in July.

Yellowman, a former Pulitzer nominated play set in the 1960s Deep South, opens the season from 5 September to 8 October 2022. Last year's JMK Award winner Diane Page returns to the Orange Tree to direct.

Arms and the Man (19 November 2022 to 14 January 2023) marks Paul Miller's final production, and runs alongside the family show Pinocchio created by OT's community director Liam Shea.

Following its run in autumn 2021, Sonali Bhattacharyya's Two Billion Beats, "a coming-of-age story about the unfairness of growing up in a world where you don't make the rules", returns from 20 January to 4 February 2023, directed by Nimmo Ismail.

Completing the season is the world premiere of Ross Willis' Grim Brenda, developed with and directed by Ned Bennett (Pomona, An Octoroon), in a co-production between the Orange Tree and Francesca Moody Productions. It's billed as "an extraordinary play soaked in myth and magic, full of laughter with a beating and bruised heart."

Paul Miller said today: "New plays by the most exciting new writers, in dialogue with unexpected and intriguing revivals from the past: this season is another classic OT mixtape. I'm proud that we continue to further the emergence of such exciting talent, from Ned Bennett to Nimmo Ismail, as well as offering revivals that span the repertoire, from Bernard Shaw to Dael Orlandersmith.

"Since 2014 I have been privileged to lead the OT in forging this path, and am profoundly grateful to all the many people who have worked along the way to make this improbable success happen. It's time to pass it forward now, and I wish my admirable successor Tom Littler all the very best, at the best theatre in the world."