MACBETH By William Shakespeare
DANIEL EVANS AND KATHY BOURNE PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHAN PERSSON
WELCOME
Welcome to our final main stage production of Festival 2019, Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The production marks Paul Miller’s directorial debut in his home-town of Chichester. Now Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, he talks of the Festival Theatre as the location of his ‘theatrical upbringing’, seeing many productions here from an early age; so it’s an enormous pleasure to have him directing in the Festival Theatre for the first time. Macbeth also marks the CFT debut of John Simm in the title role and reunites him with Dervla Kirwan, known to many in Chichester for her recent appearance in King Lear with Ian McKellen (2017) and her previous roles in Frankie and Johnny (2014) and Uncle Vanya (2012). She and John recently played husband and wife in Strangers on ITV; John’s many other credits include Hamlet (Sheffield Theatres), Pinter at the Pinter: Six (West End) and TV’s Collateral.
Whether this is your first time seeing Macbeth, or you are rediscovering this great play, we hope you enjoy this production. If you want to learn more about it, don’t miss Paul Miller in conversation with Kate Mosse on 25 September or join the post-show discussion with members of the company on 22 October. For children aged 10 and upwards, there’s a chance to get active in our unarmed stage combat workshop, When The Battle’s Lost and Won, on 26 October.
Executive Director Kathy Bourne
cft.org.uk
Artistic Director Daniel Evans
BRANCHING OUT Louise Rigglesford, Community Partnerships Manager, introduces CFT’s work with The Chichester Centre. Almost four years ago, Chichester Festival Theatre’s Learning, Education and Participation (LEAP) team were invited to deliver a series of practical theatre workshops at The Chichester Centre, a low-secure hospital for adults who need rehabilitation and treatment for mental health difficulties. Initially intended to be a one-off series of sessions, these have developed into a core part of the sessions LEAP runs weekly for various groups of all ages and abilities. Working alongside Occupational Therapists from the Centre, we were clear from the outset about the importance of facilitating activities that would enable a sense of belonging and coming together: something that at times can be hard to achieve in a hospital environment. Sessions were offered as an open group with participants coming from a variety of different backgrounds, diagnosis and levels of participation. It was one of the first activities to be offered to clients from across the different wards within the Centre. For the majority of the participants, these sessions were their first foray into the world of theatre. With this in mind, we began by delivering introductory theatre skills sessions and invited the group to a backstage tour of CFT. Due to the nature of the Centre, there was no obligation for participants to attend every session; however, the majority did take part every week. As such, a flexible working style developed, tailored to the needs of the individuals in the room, who commented: “I’ve never really had the chance to take part in something like that before.” “It’s given me a way of expressing myself and a positive activity to focus on.”
“Exploring different aspects of what we can do in the group makes me feel bigger than life itself!” The sessions have helped the participants develop a more positive sense of identity, to feel confident when initiating and sharing new ideas, and to be more comfortable when speaking to others. The skills they have developed are easily translated into a variety of social situations for when they leave hospital, whether at work, going into education or when building relationships with friends and other people in their life. This summer the group performed an original piece called The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter to an audience of invited guests in the Minerva Theatre. The stimulus for the piece came from one member of the group who has a particular interest in Japanese culture and was inspired by the sessions to write a script in their own time and share it with the group. Roma Carter, Senior Occupational Therapist at The Chichester Centre, has been involved in the project from the beginning: “For some individuals, the opportunity to engage in activity-based, creative groups has allowed them to develop and demonstrate a greater degree of concentration, social skills and processing skills that has not always been as evident in the general ward environment. “The performance was a culmination of months of creativity, commitment and energy from a number of service users, and I was so proud to see them perform on the Minerva Theatre stage.” The group have recently named themselves the Three Trees Theatre Company (after the three wards at the centre - Fir, Hazel and Pine), and have identified a shared passion for music. This Autumn we will start work on creating a new piece using this as our stimulus.
LEAP
LEARNING, EDUCATION AND PARTICIPATION Our Learning, Education and Participation department works with people of all ages and abilities, offering opportunities to get involved with CFT beyond the work you see on our stages. A wide range of practical workshops, talks, tours and performances aims to excite and inspire everyone who takes part.
COMMUNITY
CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE
Enjoy developing artistic, personal and social skills through our workshops, projects, productions and award-winning Youth Theatre for young people of all abilities. Chichester Festival Youth Theatre | Holiday Activities | Arts Award
EDUCATION
Our work with local schools, colleges and universities is designed to inspire and enrich students’ learning, while the next generation of arts professionals is nurtured through our training and apprenticeships programme. In-school workshops and projects | Work Experience | School Theatre Days
Learn about life behind the scenes, discover more about productions, develop creative skills, socialise and share experiences with others through workshops and community projects for anyone aged 18 +. Get Into It! workshops | Talks and Discussions | Heritage projects | Dementia Friendly activities
FAMILIES
We’re always delighted to welcome our youngest visitors and their grown-ups to the Theatre. Families can explore and have fun with workshops, productions, events and activities. Family Foyle sessions | Little Notes | Fun Palaces | Family workshops
cft.org.uk/leap
MACBETH By William Shakespeare
A CERTAIN KIND OF
MADNESS The 19th century English historian, politician and writer Lord Acton (1834-1902) issued a stark warning about the potentially corrupting effects of power in the hands of despots and tyrants: ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Acton’s words were penned in 1887 in a letter to the historian Mandell Creighton, rebutting Creighton’s assertion that kings and popes should be given the benefit of the doubt and judged differently from other men. Acton, a man of high moral rectitude and with a strong sense of history, was a severe arbiter and for him it was a cardinal error not to expect exemplary standards of behaviour from those holding ultimate power and the highest offices of state. Far from tolerating and excusing derailed and delinquent leaders, Acton would prefer to ‘hang them higher [than common criminals]’. In his judgement, great men whom power has corrupted should pay a heavy price. In A History of Western Philosophy (1946), Bertrand Russell alerted us to the corrupting and intoxicating effects that power can have on the human mind. For Russell, the intoxication of power is a ‘certain kind of madness’ that presents the ‘greatest danger of our time’ with the potential to contribute to ‘vast social disaster’. It comes as no surprise that the Ancient Greeks were alert to the threats posed by leaders’ mental stability and the potentially disruptive effects on society and democracy of leaders’ intoxication with power, success and excess. They offered their own psychological explanation. The most perilous consequence of excess was hybris. Hybris, or as we now refer to it ‘hubris’, is a defect of moral character that
the Greeks dreaded absolutely. For them, the over-confidence, ambition, pride, contempt and arrogance that are the hallmarks of hubristic excess (koros) were followed by ate (a mental deception in the minds of those the Gods are leading to disaster) and the restorative justice served upon mortals who have the temerity to assume god-like powers (administered by the goddess of retribution Némesis). The rich (because they considered themselves above the law) and young men (fuelled by youthful exuberance and recklessness) were particularly at risk from hubris.
The problem of prime ministerial and presidential well-being is compounded by the tendency among heads of government to keep their physical and mental health out of the public gaze. In ancient history, the Persian leader Xerxes was so intoxicated with power that he ordered the Hellespont (a narrow stretch of water that separates Europe and Asia) receive 300 strokes of a whip for defying him when a storm
Illustration (1909) depicting Xerxes' punishment of the Hellespont: the waters were whipped 300 times and shackles dropped into them as a mark of enslavement.