The Chichester Festival Theatre has announced its 2011 season, which
runs from May to November:
9 May - 18 June
She Loves Me
Book by Joe Masteroff, music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Minerva Theatre
This romantic comedy is the story of Georg and Amalia, lovelorn assistants
in a 1930s parfumerie. Forever squabbling by day, they secretly find
comfort in the passionate but anonymous love letters they write by
night, both unaware that each is the other’s correspondent.
Joe McFadden plays Georg, Dianne Pilkington plays Amalia and Stephen
Mears directs and choreographs.
20 May - 11 June
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
By Tom Stoppard
Festival Theatre
Trevor Nunn directs
23 June - 16 July
Top Girls
By Caryl Churchill
Minerva Theatre
Max Stafford-Clark, who directed the play's premiere at the Royal
Court, directs
27 June - 10 September
Singin' in the Rain
Based on the MGM film, screenplay and adaptation by Betty Comden and
Adolph Green with songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed
Festival Theatre
Directed by Janathan Chuirch and choreographed by Andrew Wright
Starring Adam Cooper, Daniel Crossley and Scarlett Strallen
13 July - 3 September
The Deep Blue Sea
By Terrence Rattigan
Festival Theatre
Directed by Philip Franks
19 July - 3 September
Rattigan's Nijinsky
By Nicholas Wright
Festival Theatre
World premiere
In 1974 Terence Rattigan wrote a television script for the BBC about
Diaghilev, genius impresario behind the Ballets Russes, and Nijinsky,
the greatest dancer of all time. He was proud of it, but the film
was never produced and the script, withdrawn mysteriously by Rattigan
himself, was never published.
Now playwright Nicholas Wright imagines why. In this new play, a dying
Rattigan meets Nijinsky’s elderly widow Romola to fight over
his beloved play. In the same room, and using Rattigan’s words,
Diaghilev and the young Romola fight over the tormented Nijinsky.
Directed by Philip Franks
21 July - 20 August
Il Sindico Del Rione Sanità (The Syndicate)
By Eduardo De Filippo, on a new version by Mike Poulton
Minerva Theatre
World premiere
Honest young Antonio Barracano stabs a brutal night-watchman to death.
With the help of a ‘Godfather’ he is smuggled out of Naples
to hide in New York. Convicted of the murder in his absence but safe
overseas, he quickly acquires wealth and a reputation for ruthlessness.
Returning to Naples, he uses his new status to quash his conviction
and is soon feared but respected throughout the city, making it his
life’s work to provide a form of rough justice for the criminals
of Naples who have no other access to law.
He rules the Naples underbelly with a rod of iron but when a respectable
but poor young man decides to murder his father and comes to Don Antonio
for advice, the Neapolitan ‘Godfather’ emerges from the
shadows to make the young man’s father an offer he can’t
refuse.
Directed by Sean Matthias and starring Ian McKellen and Michael Pennington
2 September - 8 October
South Downs / The Browning Version
By David Hare / Terrence Rattigan
Minerva Theatre
David Hare's new play (world premiere), written at the invitation
of the Rattigan Estate as a response to The Browning Version,
is a meditation on learning, faith and teenage friendship, played
against the backdrop of a Britain still fighting to maintain an established
rule.
Jeremy Herrin directs South Downs and Angus Jackson The
Browning Version
24 September - 5 November
Sweeney Todd
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler
Festival Theatre
Jonathan Kent directs. Starring Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton
