Theatre review: The Lottery of Love

Its programming is fairly varied but Artistic Director Paul Miller's productions of classics a couple of times a year have become a signature of the Orange Tree. He usually picks British plays from the last century or so, but this time he's ventured a bit further afield, to the 18th century French writer Marivaux and his comedy The Lottery of Love. Sylvia (Dorothea Myer-Bennett) and Richard (Ashley Zhangazha) have been promised to each other since childhood, and are about to meet for the first time. Their fathers have both agreed they only need to go ahead with the marriage if they like each other, and Sylvia wants to make sure she catches Richard as he really is, not just on his best behaviour. So she hatches a scheme, agreed to by her father Mr Morgan (Pip Donaghy,) to trade places with her maid Louisa (Claire Lams,) and get all the gossip from her prospective husband's servants.

Theatre review: The Collector

Even with the Old Vic Tunnels long gone there seems no end to the amount of railway arches under Waterloo Station being used as theatres. The network of performance spaces known as The Vaults have colonised another tunnel down the road, now confusingly christened The Vault Theatre, and a dingy kind of space is apt for Mark Healey's adaptation of John Fowles' The Collector. The setting is a large basement kitted out in mismatched old furniture, the cellar of a remote 17th century farmhouse bought by Frederick Clegg (Daniel Portman) after winning millions in the lottery. Working class, poorly educated and socially awkward, the money has opened up possibilities for him, but he's gone straight for the darkest possible interpretation of this: He's been obsessed with art student Miranda Grey (Lily Loveless) for months, and can now collect her.

Theatre review: Martine

You'd expect a play called Martine to be a biography of Ms McCutcheon, but I'm afraid we'll have to wait a little while longer for an onstage reenactment of that time she vomited in Mick Hucknall's hair. Instead Jean-Jacques Bernard’s play takes place in rural France in 1920, as Julien (Barnaby Sax) returns from the war to stay with his only living relative, his grandmother (Susan Penhaligon) in a small village. On the way he meets and falls for local simpleton Martine (Hannah Murray.) This is her moment, this is her perfect moment with him, and a fortnight of flirtation follows, but the arrival of Jeanne (Leila Crerar,) to whom he had once been promised, makes him long for the company of someone better-educated. Soon Julien and Jeanne are married, and Martine is left to either watch from next door and pine, or accept Alfred's (Chris Porter) unwanted proposal.