Chichester’s Festival 2016 includes two musicals, two new plays and four epic dramas.
Hugh Bonneville returns to the stage in Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, directed by Howard Davies, and Joseph Fiennes plays Lawrence of Arabia in Ross by Terence Rattigan, directed by Adrian Noble.
There will be productions of two British musicals, as Rachel Kavanaugh directs a new stage version of Half a Sixpence with book by Julian Fellowes and new music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe alongside original songs by David Heneker and Patricia Hodge and Steven Pacey lead the cast in the world première of Travels with my Aunt, based on Graham Greene’s novel with a book by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, music by George Stiles and lyrics by Anthony Drewe, directed by Christopher Luscombe.
Two new plays première in the Minerva Theatre: Fracked! Or Please Don’t Use the F-Word by Alistair Beaton, featuring James Bolam and Anne Reid, and First Light by Mark Hayhurst.
Bertie Carvel makes his directorial debut with a revival of John Galsworthy’s Strife. This House by James Graham will be directed by Jeremy Herrin and The Royal Shakespeare Company’s pairing of Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado about Nothing will contribute towards the celebrations of Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary.
Chichester Festival Youth Theatre will present Peter Pan in the Festival Theatre for Christmas, directed by Dale Rooks.