From the Room to the Round
‘One of the old ladies said to me, “When you build a new theatre, Mr Walters, I will still be trodden on by the actors, won’t I?” And I said, "oh, yes, don’t worry…"’
(Sam Walters, Founder and Former Artistic Director)
It became quickly apparent that larger and more accessible premises were required to accommodate the theatre's regularly over-subscribed shows. A mid-Victorian building on Clarence Street, over the road from the Orange Tree Pub, became available when the primary school it housed was closed down in 1974. However, it was not until 1987 that permission to convert the old school into a new Orange Tree Theatre was granted.
Theatre Projects, a specialist architectural firm led by Iain Mackintosh, was appointed. To maintain the intimacy of The Room, the design brief insisted on an unusually small stage in the round with seating at stage level. It was agreed to retain the old school's Victorian facade, with the new theatre, box office, bar and dressing rooms contained within.
‘Everyone believed the theatre belonged to them, to the people of Richmond’
(Sir Richard and Lady Sheila Attenborough, quoted in a brochure for the appeal)
A significant shortfall of £750,000 was required for the construction. A fundraising appeal was launched in 1988, spearheaded and generously supported by the late actor, director and producer, Sir Richard Attenborough, and his wife, Lady Sheila Attenborough. Long-term Richmond residents, the Orange Tree was a cause close to their hearts. The funds were raised through charity shows, auctions, raffles and dinners; testimony to the Orange’s Tree’s established place in the local community.
Image credit: © Richmond upon Thames Local Studies Library and Archive, LBRUT/P/2/1/58.
‘Let the performers be surrounded, not secure on a raised platform.
Let the audience be aware of one another’
(Sam Walters, Founder and Former Artistic Director)
Image credit: © The OT
On the 14th February 1991, almost twenty years after the first lunchtime performance, the new Orange Tree Theatre was opened to rave reviews with a production of Arthur Murphy’s ‘All in the Wrong.’
The move formally established the Orange Tree as a theatre in the round – a type of performance space in which the audience surrounds the stage. Described as the oldest form of storytelling, theatre in the round provides a shared space where the audience are embraced as participants:
‘Thousands of years ago in a clearing in the forest, they didn’t say, “now you go over there where you can’t quite see us and we will stand here and shout at you because you can’t quite hear us”, no, they gathered round together…’
(Paul Miller, Artistic Director)
Image credit: © Unknown. Image held at Royal Holloway University Archive (uncatalogued material).
'Sam was a visionary and advocate for theatre in the round... [and I now] feel slightly deprived if I'm not sitting next to the actors. You have to be right there. I mean, sitting next to King Lear weeping over the body of his dead Cordelia, it's just... what can I say'
(Marcia Bennie, Former Theatre Manager and Publicist)
This continued a tradition begun in The Room, where there was no backstage space to hide set and costume changes from the viewer. Indeed, the theatre had even gained a reputation for ‘doorless farces’, in which actors mimed the opening and closing of pretend doors and sound effects were created live in the corner.
A regular Orange Tree actor, Barry Killerby - later to find fame as Mr Blobby - was considered particularly adept:
‘The things he [Killerby] could do with a nonexistent door were terrific!’
(Sam Walters, Founder and Former Artistic Director)
A natural partner was the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, permanent home to the first theatre company in the country to have worked in the round. A number of productions were played at both venues, including the world premiere of ‘Private Fears in Public Places’ by Alan Ayckbourn, prolific playwright and then Artistic Director of the Stephen Joseph.
And as for the room above the pub where it all began? It functioned as a second stage until 1997 when it was refurbished into pub lavatories:
‘One actress who'd been in a lot of plays there went over and sat on the loo - and cried’
(Sam Walters, Founder and Former Artistic Director)