DUET FOR ONE Starring Tara Fitzgerald Joins Orange Tree Theatre's 2023 Season

The Orange Tree Theatre has announced their production of Tom Kempinski's 1980 drama Duet For One. Richard Beecham makes his OT debut directing Tara FitzGerald (Stephanie Abrahams) and Maureen Beattie (Dr Feldmann) in this new adaptation accompanied by live music. The production opens on 16 February, with previews from 11 February, and runs until 18 March 2023.

Tom Kempinski's moving and hopeful story has triumphed in the West End and on Broadway, later turned into a feature film starring Julie Andrews and Alan Bates. Duet For One runs in place of Grim Brenda which will be staged at later date, with full details to be confirmed.

OT Artistic Director Tom Littler said: "Duet for One is one of the great plays about music, but its resonance goes much wider. I'm delighted we're producing Tom Kempinski's beautiful chamber play. Tara FitzGerald and Maureen Beattie are a dream cast, and Richard Beecham's production will reinvent Duet for One for a new generation. We look forward to staging Grim Brenda in the future."

You see, there's no God, Dr. Feldmann, but I know where they got the idea; they got it from music.

Stephanie Abrahams (Tara FitzGerald) is a world-renowned concert violinist at the peak of her career. But upon receiving life-changing news, Stephanie is forced to look for a new way to live. Her composer husband sends her to psychiatrist Dr Feldmann (Maureen Beattie), but Stephanie isn't interested in offers of help. As her beloved music falls silent, Stephanie must dig deep into her past to face an unknown future.

Tara FitzGerald makes her OT debut playing Stephanie Abrahams. Her theatre credits include: Antigone (The Old Vic/UK tour), Hamlet (Young Vic/Almeida/Belasco Theatre, New York - New York Drama Desk Award), Macbeth, The Winter's Tale, Women Beware Women (Shakespeare's Globe), Shipwreck (Almeida Theatre), Broken Glass (Vaudeville Theatre), A Doll's House (Donmar Warehouse), And Then There Were None (Gielgud Theatre), The Misanthrope (Harold Pinter Theatre) and A Streetcar Named Desire (Bristol Old Vic). Her television credits include Game of Thrones (as series regular Selyse Baratheon), Waking the Dead (as series regular Eve Lockhart), Belgravia (as series regular Lady Templemore), Frenchman's Creek (Best Actress at The Reims International Television Festival), Death in Paradise, The ABC Murders, Origin, Requiem, Strike, The Musketeers, In the Club, The Body Farm, U Be Dead, The Virgin Queen, Jane Eyre, The Woman in White, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Six Characters in Search of an Author; and for film: The King, Una, Exodus: Gods and Kings, In a Dark Place, The Runaways, Legend, Child 44, The Lion's Mouth, Five Children and It, Dark Blue World, Rancid Aluminium, New World Disorder, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, Brassed Off, A Man of No Importance, Sirens, Hear My Song and I Capture the Castle.

Maureen Beattie makes her OT debut as Dr Feldmann. She has recently finished playing Mrs Pearce in My Fair Lady at the London Coliseum after playing Helen in The Scent of Roses at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. Her other theatre credits include Yerma (Young Vic), Nuclear War (Royal Court) and The Ferryman (Gielgud Theatre). Her television credits include: Our House, Deadwater Fell, Outlander and Doctor Who. Beattie was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to the entertainment industry.

Richard Beecham is a London-based theatre director. Recent productions include the critically acclaimed revival of Samuel Beckett's Footfalls and Rockaby starring Dame Sian Phillips (Jermyn Street Theatre). This production marked his third collaboration with Phillips following their rare revival of Playing For Time, Arthur Miller's epic play about the women's orchestra in Auschwitz (Sheffield Theatres) and a revival of Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy (Theatre Royal Bath/UK tour). Other notable productions include a radical reimagining of Patrick Hamilton's Gaslight set in a Women's Refuge (Watford Palace Theatre); a revival of Martin Sherman's Rose starring Dame Janet Suzman (HOME Manchester); and a revival of 84 Charing Cross Road starring Stefanie Powers and Clive Francis and an ensemble of actor-musicians (Cambridge Arts Theatre/UK tour).

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