OUR GENERATION A new play by Alecky Blythe
WELCOME
KATHY BOURNE AND DANIEL EVANS PHOTOGRAPH BY SEAMUS RYAN
FESTIVAL 2022
Welcome to the opening production of Festival 2022 in the Minerva Theatre: Alecky Blythe’s Our Generation. It was at Chichester in 1962 that Laurence Olivier established the nucleus of the National Theatre company that opened at the Old Vic the following year; so it is a special pleasure to be coproducing Our Generation with the National Theatre as we celebrate our 60th anniversary year. It is not unusual for plays to have fairly lengthy gestation periods, but the process that has birthed Our Generation is an extraordinary one. Alecky specialises in verbatim theatre, where all the words have been spoken by real people; her particular technique, known as ‘recorded delivery’, involves the actors replicating the exact way the original speaker delivered the lines through listening to recorded interviews. Alecky and her team of collectors spent five years interviewing 12 children
from six schools all over the UK, amassing over 656 hours of recorded interviews. Day by day in rehearsals, our team has been bowled over by the reallife stories and words of the younger generation, their resilience, their hope, their aspiration. We’re sure there will be many characters whose experience you recognise. The play is brought to life by a superb cast, who embody the enormous talent which promises a bright future for our industry. Among them are our three seasoned actors: Debbie Chazen, Hasan Dixon and Stephanie Street, who returns to the CFT stage having last appeared here in Quiz. Looking forward, we have a wealth of compelling contemporary drama to discover this season, including Steven Moffat’s The Unfriend, Stephen Beresford’s The Southbury Child, Roy Williams’ Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads and Christopher Shinn’s The Narcissist. Thank you for joining us for this performance – we hope you enjoy Our Generation.
Executive Director Kathy Bourne
cft.org.uk
Artistic Director Daniel Evans
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SING YER HEART OUT FOR THE LADS By Roy Williams Nicole Charles’s much-praised production of Roy Williams’s ferocious, funny and disturbing play, originally staged in the Spiegeltent in 2019, returns for a run in the Minerva Theatre – part of which will be transformed into a pub setting to creative an immersive theatrical experience.
MINERVA THEATRE 22 July – 13 August #SingYerHeartOut
cft.org.uk
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THE NARCISSIST A new play by Christopher Shinn A gripping, inventive and witty take on personal and political communication in the internet age. This world premiere from celebrated American playwright Christopher Shinn is directed by Josh Seymour.
MINERVA THEATRE 26 August – 24 September #TheNarcissist
cft.org.uk
SOMETHING FO Chichester Festival Youth Theatre offers opportunities for young people throughout West Sussex As you sit watching today’s performance in the Festival or Minerva Theatre, across the county young people are also acting up a storm. Chichester Festival Youth Theatre (CFYT) was first established in 1985. Such was its popularity that demand for membership outstripped the provision available at its Chichester base; and a growing awareness of areas in West Sussex where there was little or no high quality arts provision for children and young people led to the roll-out of a satellite programme across a geographical area of approximately 50 square miles. Today, CFYT runs 38 weekly sessions in seven locations – Billingshurst, Bognor Regis, Burgess Hill, Horsham, Littlehampton, Midhurst and Worthing – and in Chichester itself. Each location hosts groups for Years 6 – 9
(ages 10 – 13) and for Years 10 – 13 and above (ages 14 – 25). There are currently opportunities to join all the older and most of the younger groups. ‘CFYT sessions will appeal to any young person needing a bit of escapism and to have some fun,’ says Hannah Hogg, CFT’s Youth & Outreach Manager. ‘It’s about gaining confidence, friendships, social and life skills. A very small percentage of our young people want a theatre career; the skills they gain are just as applicable to being a lawyer or a nurse.’ The year is divided into three terms, starting by looking at skills such as improvisation, devising or mime. Next, participants work towards sharing an informal performance with their peers and family. During the final term they’ll focus on a project such as Shakespeare or a mini-performance in the Minerva. All sessions are led by professional theatre practitioners.
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OR EVERYONE ‘It’s about gaining confidence, friendships, social and life skills.’
upwards; these are open to participants from across the county. So is the Technical Youth Theatre which, being a two-year course, differs from the Youth Theatre sessions (which you can join at any point); a new Tech group will be recruited in September. Every member has the opportunity to ‘There is something for everyone. We’re audition for the major CFYT productions, not a stage school, we’re about developing including the famed Christmas show. And the person and having a good time’, Hannah while CFYT’s mission is far wider, it can be emphasises. ‘The experience is exactly the a springboard into the theatrical profession; same for CFYT members in our satellite there are Youth Theatre graduates throughout locations, as for those attending sessions the industry, including the actors Finn Elliot at CFT itself. It’s very different from school (recently seenAlecky in The Blythe’s Crown) and Felix new verbatim engrossing tells the club; stories of a generation. or an play after-school it benefits anyone’s Mosse (son of Kate), Fred Oftenand toopuppeteers extraordinary to be fiction, Daniel Evans this funny and wellbeing to havedirects a completely different Davis and Romina Hytten, who play won in a 2022 moving a co-production with theforNational experience an hourTheatre. and a half each week.’ Laurence Olivier Award as part of the team on The Life of Pi in the West End. MINERVAForTHEATRE more information about joining CFYT, Additional needs groups are held in 22 Aprilvisit cft.org.uk/cfyt – 14 May Horsham and in Chichester, where dance #OurGeneration groups are also on offer for younger children, and a musical theatre group for year 11
LEAP cft.org.uk
FOOD AND DRINK Enjoy delicious food and drink at our welcoming café and restaurant. Whether you’re having a meal before the show, simply relaxing with a coffee or powering up using our free Wi-Fi, we can’t wait to welcome you.
DINE BEFORE THE SHOW
GREAT COFFEE IN A GREAT LOCATION
Enjoy a light and relaxed menu of sharing platters and small plates featuring local and seasonal ingredients, a brilliant range of local gin and spirits as well as beers and wines in our award-winning restaurant the Minerva Bar & Grill – the closest restaurant to the Minerva Theatre.
A great spot for barista coffee, freshly made sandwiches, delicious cakes and a range of drinks. Our Café on the Park offers indoor and outdoor seating overlooking Oaklands Park and family friendly areas in our spacious foyer.
Open for matinees from 12pm and evening shows from 5pm. Also available for private hires and functions.
Open Monday to Friday from 10am and from 9am on Saturday so ParkRunners can stop by for much needed refreshment.
Visit cft.org.uk/eat, call 01243 782219 or email dining@cft.org.uk for opening times, reservations, menus and more.
OUR GENERATION A new play by Alecky Blythe
Our Generation has been many years in the making. Alecky Blythe and five collectors, Izzy Dougill, Leah Gaffey, Dan Murphy, Ruth Tebby and Olivia Wilkes, spent five years recording 656 hours’ worth of interviews with young people from across the UK. They reflected on that experience with creative producer, Pádraig Cusack. Pádraig Cusack: How did you all come to be involved in the project? Leah Gaffey I met Alecky after graduating from Goldsmiths in 2014. I was writing my dissertation and London Road was one of my case studies. Ruth, Olivia, Izzy and I were all writing a verbatim show about my hometown; Alecky came to see the show. Alecky Blythe They didn’t realise I was on the snoop for assistants, so it was very good timing. Dan was separate – another verbatim entrepreneur who got in touch. Dan Murphy I was similarly working on my first verbatim play and didn’t have a clue how LAPTOP AND NOTEBOOK IMAGE COURTESY OF STARTUPSTOCK PHOTOS/PIXABAY
to do it, or honestly what verbatim was! I was working as an usher at the Almeida when Little Revolution was on. I got in touch with Alecky and she very kindly helped me with advice on collecting and turning these interviews I was doing into something people would come and see. AB Funnily enough it was in Dan’s play where I first spotted Hasan Dixon, who is now one of the actors in our company. Alecky, when you assembled this team, did you have to train them to do verbatim theatre your way? AB There are lots of different approaches to verbatim and some practitioners may not work directly from edited audio interviews, which is my schtick. These guys were all working from the audio, as I do, so that was a good start. I would send them some original audio uncut, leaving my questions in to show what sort of questions to ask, and how to ask them. I’d also send an edit of the interview to show them the material worthy of making the final cut. It was
a learning curve for me too because it was the first time I hadn’t been over all the material. The collectors would send me the best 90 minutes from each visit with the subjects which I would then boil down further.
antennae – keep a sentence or a phrase in your head and keep digging. That bit of advice stuck with me throughout the collection process. You have to remind yourself to keep that antennae on at all times.
12 children from six schools were interviewed for five years
LG You, Alecky, gave some good advice. If you are feeling a bit awkward, that’s usually because you are recording some good material – and by that, I mean they’re not holding back – and it’s about learning when to step back and be that fly on the wall and let the conversation happen.
Ruth Tebby Previously, we had done work that was about something that had happened or an event. This was about finding teenagers to talk about their lives and see where their lives went. Izzy Dougill My first year of collecting was just absolute waffle. Looking back, I now realise that it just takes time to find your feet and to be in tune with your subjects. Your confidence and interviewing skills grow after each visit. I remember us meeting with Rufus Norris and he was saying that we had to sharpen those
I wanted a variety of personalities to try to reflect a broad spectrum of children around the country