tender and powerful

The Orange Tree is back with a bang

wonderful to feel the magic of live theatre once again

Whether you enjoy this play – or indeed whether you should risk giving it a go at all – will depend greatly on your taste in theatre. Do you feel a thrill in your bones when an old story is told in a new and “experimental” way? Or do you prefer to lurk instead in the comfortable familiarity of more conventional drama? You know: rounded characters, emotional connection – old-fashioned stuff like that. In Amsterdam, four actors create a story. ...

A strange but enjoyable comedy with plenty of laughter and darkness

Zoe Cooper’s Jess and Joe Forever, premiered in 2016, was my favourite show of the year. An exuberant hit of sweet, sticky romcom, and a nourishing examination of class, gender and rural English life, it fizzed with the joy of potential: both for the lives of its eponymous protagonists and the power of telling their story. Returning to the round of the Orange Tree Theatre, Cooper’s latest, Out of Water, revisits these themes and introduces us to a new trio ...