Theatre in the Park, a temporary state-of-the-art auditorium, will stage two productions at the
heart of Chichester’s Festival 2013. The brand new space will be erected in June while the £22 million RENEW redevelopment of the Festival Theatre continues.
Mirroring the Festival Theatre’s auditorium, the purpose-built temporary building will house
1,400 seats and a thrust stage. It will be just a few minutes’ stroll across Oaklands Park from the Festival Theatre site.
Theatre in the Park will be unveiled with a major revival of the musical Barnum presented in association with Cameron Mackintosh. Directed by Timothy Sheader, artistic director of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, this production will star Broadway entertainer Christopher Fitzgerald in the title role.
For the second production, Angus Jackson will direct Neville’s Island, Tim Firth’s comedy about a disastrous outward bound expedition, which promises to be a technically and visually ambitious staging.
Richard Eyre returns to Chichester to direct the musical The Pajama Game, which opens the
Festival season in the Minerva Theatre. At the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory love is in the air, but sparks fly when employees are refused a pay rise.
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht, one of the hits of Festival 2012, will be directed by Chichester’s artistic director, Jonathan Church, with Henry Goodman reprising his award-winning performance in the title role. Set in Chicago in the 1930s during the Great Depression, the play is a parable of the rise of Hitler. Following the Chichester run, the play will transfer to the West End’s Duchess Theatre.
The second play to be directed by Angus Jackson during Festival 2013 will be the world première of political drama If Only by David Edgar, which takes a witty and astute look at the world of coalition government, and the season ends with Another Country, Julian Mitchell’s sensitive exploration of sexuality and politics set against the backdrop of a public school. Directed by Jeremy Herrin, Another Country is co-produced with Theatre Royal Bath Productions in association with Fiery Angel.
Chichester Festival Youth Theatre, directed by Dale Rooks, will present Roald Dahl’s The Witches in the Minerva Theatre over the Christmas period.
Since their appointment in 2006, Jonathan Church and Alan Finch have explored ways of
developing a younger audience, and Chichester Festival Theatre was one of the most successful participants in the Arts Council’s A Night Less Ordinary scheme to give away tickets to young people in 2009-10.
During 2012 the Theatre also attracted a significant proportion of younger audience members through its temporary pop-up auditorium, Theatre on the Fly, which staged Blue Remembered Hills, Playhouse Creatures and Fred’s Diner.
They intend to encourage theatregoing among younger people during Festival 2013 with a new scheme for 18–25 year olds. A special allocation of tickets priced at £8.50 for all performances in both theatres will be released one month before each production opens.
Alongside this initiative, the theatre is revising its approach to ticket pricing by introducing a ‘flexible’ system, fixing ticket prices at an early-bird rate for a certain period, after which it may vary prices in response to demand for the most popular performances.
Priority booking for Friends of Chichester Festival Theatre opens on Tuesday 26 February for online and booking forms only. Telephone and in person bookings for Friends opens on Tuesday 5 March. General online booking opens on Thursday 7 March. Telephone and counter booking opens for all on Monday 11 March.
An allocation of tickets priced at just £8.50 for all performances in both theatres will be released one month before each production opens. These may be booked on 01243 781312, online at cft.org.uk or in person.