PINOCCHIO
KATHY BOURNE AND DANIEL EVANS PHOTOGRAPH BY SEAMUS RYAN
WELCOME
A very warm welcome to our Christmas show, Pinocchio. Many of us feel that Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Chichester Festival Youth Theatre’s annual production, and it’s with special pride that we’re welcoming this remarkable young company back to the stage this year. Despite the pandemic and lockdown, director Dale Rooks and her colleagues have unerringly steered their production through a uniquely challenging rehearsal period to a safe berth on the Festival stage, and we are thrilled to see them there. This is the third adaptation that Anna Ledwich, our Writer in Residence, has given us in recent years, following Beauty and the Beast and The Butterfly Lion – not forgetting her original play Crossing Lines – and once again her enormous talent for enlivening a classic text for
today shines through. It’s enhanced by Tom Brady’s delightful new score. The challenges and restrictions imposed by COVID-19 have, characteristically, been met by the creative team with their customary invention and flair. It’s wonderful to have set designer Simon Higlett and costume designer Ryan Dawson Laight once again creating unforgettable stage images alongside a fantastic technical team. One of their ambitions for this production was that it should be as eco-friendly as possible: making use of recycled and sustainable materials and sourcing locally, with everything being recycled afterwards. As part of CFT’s green consciousness, we intend to learn from this experience with an eye to future productions. We hope you and your families have a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year.
Executive Director Kathy Bourne
cft.org.uk
Artistic Director Daniel Evans
CFT BUDDIES RENEWED Despite the interruption to performances participants. These calls provided much and many other activities caused by needed company, kept spirits high and COVID-19, at Chichester Festival Theatre signposted individuals to further support the important work of reaching out to if required. Some users continue to our local communities has continued receive calls and to date, over 200 in new ways. individual phone calls have been made. One example of how the Learning, “I have loved my weekly phone call Education and Participation (LEAP) team from my beloved CFT, which has have maintained their relationship with played a major part in my life for some of our most vulnerable patrons so long. What a wonderful idea has been through a new approach and how thoughtful.” to the CFT Buddies scheme. CFT Buddies is a volunteer companion Now that CFT’s doors are opening to service for those who might benefit from audiences once again, the full CFT having someone accompany them during Buddies scheme – with additional COVIDtheir visit to the Theatre. Whether they safe measures in place – is once again up need support because of a learning or and running. If you would like to attend a physical difficulty, or find the idea of going performance with the support of a Buddy, to the Theatre on their own daunting, a or to arrange to meet one of our Buddies CFT Buddy can give the extra confidence for a social cup of tea in the Theatre’s they need and can enjoy the show Café; or if you know someone who might alongside them. benefit from this service, please email access@cft.org.uk, call the Box Office “I am very touched by the on 01243 781312 or visit thoughtfulness and kindness of the cft.org.uk/CFTbuddies for more team at CFT. How lucky are we to information and an online form. have such a very special and brilliant theatre in this area.” The CFT Buddies scheme is made During lockdown, nine of CFT’s Buddies possible by the kind support of became Weekly Callers, volunteering to keep in touch with some of our more isolated audience members and
TASTE FOOD & DRINK EVENTS
Caper & Berry present a mini-season of delicious dinners, entertaining evenings and gin-tastic get-togethers in our COVID-safe restaurants. THE FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER SERIES 18 December & 15 January £45pp Caper & Berry are so excited to be hosting this very popular series of evenings alongside Hennings Wine Merchants. Delight in a sumptuous five-course tasting menu – you can also add exquisite wine pairings for £20pp or soft drinks for £10pp.
GIN TASTING EVENING Saturday 16 January £25pp Savour three different gins, along with mixers from Fever-Tree. Charcuterie and mezze sharing boards are available for purchase during the evening along with alternative drinks from the bar.
CALL MY BLUFF WINE TASTING DINNER Friday 8 January £59pp Enjoy a delicious four-course meal with four carefully matched wines and see if you can beat trade experts as we play ‘Guess the Wine’. Also includes arrival drink and coffee.
To book, email dining@cft.org.uk or call 01243 782219 between 10am and 4pm Monday – Friday.
cft.org.uk/taste
THANK YOU We are incredibly grateful to our supporters, sponsors, audiences and everyone who has sent good wishes and donations, or attended a performance online or in person this year. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all at CFT
PINOCCHIO A new adaptation by Anna Ledwich Music by Tom Brady From the original novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
PUPPET OFF If someone were to ask, ‘What’s the most translated book in the world after the Bible?’, how many of us might think to reply: ‘Pinocchio’ ? Yet until recently, this 19th century Italian children’s tale held that very record. Created in 1881 by a Tuscan writer named Carlo Collodi, The Adventures of Pinocchio started life as a magazine serial – much like many of Dickens’s stories – and thanks to its huge popularity with readers, was published as a novel in 1883. Since then, it’s seen innumerable incarnations – most famously, of course, in Disney’s cartoon version – and the idea of a liar being identified by his long nose is firmly established. And while details of the characters and story have varied significantly between tellings over the years, some aspects remain constant: the poor carpenter Geppetto carves a figure from a wooden block which DIRECTOR, DALE ROOKS IMAGE COURTESY OF RICHARD GIBBONS
becomes the mischievous marionette Pinocchio, whose nose grows longer when he tells an untruth but who longs to become human. Pinocchio is – according to that font of all wisdom, Wikipedia – ‘one of the most re-imagined characters in children’s literature.’ Alongside Lewis Carroll’s Alice, Sherlock Holmes and fairy tale heroines like Cinderella, the story has passed beyond literature to become an instantly recognisable trope in countless cultures and languages. And yet, in this country at least, the novel itself doesn’t seem to be a bookshelf staple. ‘I had never read the original until last year,’ says playwright Anna Ledwich, CFT’s Writer in Residence. ‘I had seen the Disney movie when I was very small, but couldn’t remember much about it, to be honest. But some of the iconic characters and moments definitely bled into
F A STRING my consciousness: the song ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’, the character of Jiminy Cricket, and the image of Pinocchio with donkey’s ears.’ Dale Rooks, who directs the production, also has no recollection of having a copy when she was growing up. It was seeing the National Theatre’s 2017 production which awakened her interest in it as a possible CFYT Christmas show – and, as she cheerfully admits, ‘We hadn’t done it before! It has a really great story and wonderful characters.’ So why has this tale of a wooden puppet caught the public imagination and remained so popular across many different languages and eras? ‘One factor might be that Pinocchio is a flawed character who keeps making mistakes and must learn through painful experience what it is to be alive,’ Anna reflects. ‘Which is ironic, WRITER, ANNA LEDWICH IMAGE COURTESY OF PETE JONES
considering he’s made of wood, but that very relatable struggle is universal and not particular to one country or culture. I think also, because the original story is quite slippery in structure, scores of adaptors, from a multitude of different cultures, have been able to come at it over the years and shape it to their needs.’ The latest of those adaptors is, of course, Anna herself. How had she approached it? ‘The original story offers a lot of opportunity to be very imaginative when adapting it. It is very episodic and picaresque in structure, with multiple, looping adventures, many odd and wonderful characters, some who shape-shift and reappear, and it exists in a recognisable, yet dream-like environment,’ Anna says. ‘So the biggest challenge was picking and choosing which adventures to adapt, and how those moments contribute to the bigger story arc.