For a theatre with such humble beginnings in a room above a pub, the Orange Tree has grown to become one of London’s most decorated fringe theatres.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of actors have trodden its boards over its 43 year history and for many, it holds a special place in their hearts and minds.

The Richmond and Twickenham Times will be working with the Orange Tree Theatre over the coming weeks to highlight its importance to the borough, despite losing its vital Arts Council funding last year.

From launching the careers of directors such as Anthony Clark and dabbling in politics by establishing close links with Czech dissident Vaclav Havel, the theatre has made an impression on many lives.

And that is something which Sam Walters, the theatre’s founder, values above all else.

Remembering the theatre’s very first debut in a room above the Orange Tree pub, he says: “At the beginning, we had no idea what was going to happen.

Richmond and Twickenham Times:

It all began in a room above the Orange Tree pub

“When we started with that lunchtime performance on the last day of 1971, I didn’t know how it was going to take off but it took off terrifically well.

“In fact, we ended up playing twice because so many people arrived – we told the people who we couldn’t cram in to wait in the pub and we will do it again.

“I rushed round telling the actors they were going to have to perform twice – I don’t know how they felt about that before they had even done it once.

“But yes, it really did go off with a bang.”

One of Mr Walters’ biggest achievements as the theatre’s director was building a warm relationship with the former president of Czechoslovakia.

He says: “In 1976, a short play by Vaclav Havel was brought to my attention in the back of the Index of Censorship, which you can still get today.

“Czechoslovakia was significant at that time with the movement against the Soviet Union and we put on a play of his right at the beginning of 1977.

“He visited the theatre twice.

Richmond and Twickenham Times:

Playwright Tom Stoppard, former Czech president Vaclav Havel and Sam Walters

“You can sometimes feel like you are doing something a bit frivolous in theatre, when you are in the business of entertaining people it is not too likely you will be closely involved with politics and the big issues of the world.

“But I know, when he was in jail, he knew we were doing his plays and it mattered to him.”

A real turning point for progression came when the Orange Tree moved across Clarence Street in 1991, when it acquired the site of an old school to house a new 172-capacity theatre.

Richmond and Twickenham Times:

Sam Walters at the 'new' theatre in 1991

And despite cuts to funding, Mr Walters, who has not taken on any new projects since walking away from the theatre last year, says it still has a big role to play in London’s fringe theatre scene.

“I had actors working there in my first year who were still there in my last year so people seem to like working there,” he says.

“We are in a leafy, middle class and fairly well-off area and I think the Arts Council think it has an audience who will go to the National Theatre and even Richmond Theatre around the corner.

“I personally found the news a very big blow – it was as if they were saying all the work over the past 40 years were not valued.”

Memories from actors who have treaded the Orange Tree Theatre boards

Richmond and Twickenham Times:

Polly Hemingway in Absolute Hell

One actress with memories of the old theatre, above the pub, is Polly Hemingway, who appeared in Absolute Hell in 1988 – as well as DH Lawrence’s The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd in artistic director Paul Miller’s first production last year.

She says Absolute Hell was “most wonderful” because “everything was just so right”.

She says of the old venue: “You can imagine what it was like, I think the best seats in the house were on a window sill.

“The raw quality of it made it very exciting and I love working in-the-round and that feeling of being in the bear pit with everyone around.

“We had swing doors and I remember in one performance, on the night there was a really big England match and people were watching it in the pub below.

“Whenever there was a cheer or a woop, the doors would fly open so in the end, we had to get someone to stand and hold them closed.”

But it is not just actors with fond memories of the theatre’s beginnings who speak so warmly about the Orange Tree.

Alex Waldmann first appeared at the theatre in Paul Miller’s second season, in Widowers Houses, and said, as a Petersham resident, it was an important thing for him to do.

He says: “I really wanted to get involved with my local theatre when I moved from north London a year ago.

“The chance to work with Paul, who is an old friend from years back, came up and it was already a theatre I was familiar with – all the actors who play there say how special it is.

“I had a great time performing there – it is a great theatre and it manages to reach out to the Richmond audience well.

“I don’t know if Richmond residents realise how lucky we are to have a theatre like this and it is so important we get behind it and support it through difficult times.

“If it wasn’t there, it would be a massive blow.”

A brief history of the Orange Tree Theatre

December 1971 - Sam Walters founds the theatre in a room above the Orange Tree pub in Richmond, opening with a lunchtime performance of Go Tell It on Table Mountain.

June 1973 - The Borage Pigeon Affair by James Saunders is the theatre's first full length play and the first to be performed in the evening.

March 1975 - The theatre room is refurbished by Young's Brewery and evening shows are added to the lunchtime schedule.

February 1977 - Sam Walters programmes Václav Havel's The Memorandum as the situation in Czechoslovakia worsens.

January 1981 - In the theatre's 10th birthday season, Anthony Clark joins the theatre as an Arts Council-funded trainee director.

February 1989 - The theatre presents a season of three French plays to mark the centenary of the birth of Jean Cocteau.

January 1991 - The theatre moves into the purpose-built in-the-round space it occupies today, adapted from a disused primary school. The first production was Arthur Murphy's All in the Wrong.

December 1996 - The Orange Tree celebrates its 25th birthday. Founding member Auriol Smith directs The Verge by Susan Glaspell.

January 1999 - Sam Walters receives an MBE.

March 2007 - The Czech Centre and the Czech Embassy in London ask the theatre to host a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Charter 77 following the theatre's association with staging the work of playwright and former Czech President Vaclav Havel.

September 2011 - The last Havel play – The Conspirators – is produced.

February 2012 - Martin Crimp writes and directs his first new play since 2008, written especially for the Orange Tree’s 40th birthday, Play House.

June 2014 - Sam Walters departs the theatre after more than 42 years and is replaced as artistic director by Paul Miller. Arts Council withdraws the theatre's funding.

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