The Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond is looking for a new artistic leader, after Tom Littler was named Artistic Director and Chief Executive of The Arts Theatre Cambridge, a post he takes up in June 2027.
The move closes a five-year spell in which Littler, who arrived from Jermyn Street Theatre in 2022, has run the Orange Tree as Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive. He will continue to share the leadership with Julie Weston, the theatre's Joint CEO and Executive Director, until May 2027, and Weston stays on afterwards to carry the organisation through the search for a new Joint CEO and Artistic Director.
Audiences will see his work in Richmond for a while yet. Littler is directing King Lear and Richard II in spring 2027, his last two productions as artistic director, and returns at Christmas 2027 to stage a co-production of a comedy whose title has not yet been revealed. The full line-up of his final season is due in spring 2027.
The theatre points to a run of honours under his leadership, among them The Stage Award for Theatre of the Year, the Critics' Circle Peter Brook Empty Space Award and two Olivier nominations for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. Of his ten Orange Tree productions, Love's Labour's Lost and Much Ado About Nothing won him the 2026 UK Theatre Award for Best Director, and Twelfth Night the 2025 Off West End Best Director Award.
Over the same period the building has staged more than 40 productions, 20 of them new plays, adaptations or translations, while box office and membership have both tripled and a £4.5 million capital project has made the theatre fully accessible.
Judy Gibbons, who chairs the Orange Tree board, said: "His successor will inherit a thriving organisation, firmly established as the national theatre of South West London."
Littler said: "These have been five hugely rewarding years. Whoever takes over from me will enjoy one of the best jobs of London theatre."
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