THE TAXIDERMIST’S DAUGHTER Adapted for the stage by Kate Mosse A new play based on her novel
WELCOME
KATHY BOURNE AND DANIEL EVANS PHOTOGRAPH BY SEAMUS RYAN
FESTIVAL 2022
A very special welcome to the opening production of Festival 2022. The prospect of our 60th Anniversary season is a truly joyous one. It’s hard to imagine a more appropriate curtain raiser than The Taxidermist’s Daughter, a new play by Kate Mosse adapted from her own novel. Kate is not only an internationally best-selling author, the pioneering Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and a tireless advocate for women, literature and the arts; she has also been intimately connected with CFT since childhood and currently hosts our pre-show talks. Her thrilling and timely play is set in and around historic Chichester itself, and she writes in this programme of how the Sussex landscape was its inspiration. We are thrilled that we can finally welcome this world premiere to our main stage. We are equally delighted that Róisín McBrinn is making her directorial debut here. As Joint Artistic Director of Clean
Break, the theatre company dedicated to working with women with lived experience of the criminal justice system, she well knows the challenges that continue to face women seeking justice today, 110 years after the fictional events in Kate’s play. Róisín has assembled a superb creative team, and a multi-talented cast: some who have graced our stages before, others who are making their CFT debuts. We welcome them all. Looking ahead, we have five more world premiere productions, three musicals and a host of dramas. Don’t miss the opening play of our Minerva season: Alecky Blythe’s acclaimed Our Generation, coming straight from its National Theatre premiere. Often too extraordinary to be fiction, this funny, poignant and moving play, created from five years of interviews with 12 teenagers from all four corners of the UK, will introduce you to some truly unforgettable characters. Thank you for continuing to be a part of CFT’s journey.
Executive Director Kathy Bourne
cft.org.uk
Artistic Director Daniel Evans
Meet Mia, who wants to be on Jeremy Kyle. And Robyn, who wants a job. When Ayesha and her brother Ali aren’t bickering, they’re dreaming of going on Hajj or to Australia to get a tan. Lucas wants to get into Edinburgh and get a girlfriend. Basketball holds the future for Taylor and Luan, but for Callum it’s politics. Ierum’s only allowed on her phone at the weekends; Annabella receives surprising news via Snapchat. Emily, whose dad is the housemaster, is predicted to get ten A*s. Zac has six piano concerts in five days. Created from five years of interviews with 12 young people from all four corners of the UK, Our Generation is a captivating portrait of their teenage years as they journey into adulthood. Often too extraordinary to be fiction, this funny and moving play is for anyone who is – or has ever been – a teenager.
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OUR GENERATION A new play by Alecky Blythe
HHHH ‘Magnificent account of teenage life will steal your heart. A brilliantly charismatic cast’ Guardian
HHHH ‘A rich, gutsy production, told by a splendid ensemble. Fascinating and funny’ Evening Standard
HHHH ‘A valuable, vivid documentary of our times’ Daily Mail
★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ Financial Times
Guardian
Daily Mail
Evening Standard
★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★
MINERVA THEATRE 22 April – 14 May #OurGeneration Contains strong language. Ages 13+
cft.org.uk
Telegraph
The i
Time Out
Broadway World
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Henry Goodman
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS By Agatha Christie Adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig
Henry Goodman plays celebrated detective Hercule Poirot who faces the most difficult case of his career in Agatha Christie’s masterpiece. A spectacular new staging directed by Jonathan Church and designed by Robert Jones.
FESTIVAL THEATRE 13 May – 4 June #MurderOnTheOrientExpress
cft.org.uk
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Charlie Stemp
THE GERSHWIN MUSICAL COMEDY Music & Lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin Book by Ken Ludwig Co-conception by Ken Ludwig and Mike Ockrent Inspired by material by Guy Bolton and John McGowan
A hilarious, riotously entertaining musical packed with glorious Gershwin melodies and stunning tap dance routines, directed and choreographed by the multi Tony and Olivier Award-winning Susan Stroman. Charlie Stemp (Half A Sixpence, Mary Poppins) returns to Chichester to lead the cast.
FESTIVAL THEATRE 11 July – 4 September #CrazyForYou
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 Mosse engrossing new verbatim tells the club; stories of a generation. or an play after-school it benefits anyone’s (son of Kate), andOften puppeteers Fred Davistoand too extraordinary be fiction, Daniel Evans this funny and wellbeing to havedirects a completely different Romina Hytten, who were nominated a moving play infor a co-production with theforNational experience an hourTheatre. and a half each week.’ 2022 Laurence Olivier Award as part of the team on The Life of Pi in the West End. MINERVA ForTHEATRE 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 contemporary British menu featuring local and seasonal ingredients, a selection of excellent wines and top-notch service in our stylish and award-winning restaurant The Brasserie – the closest restaurant to the 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 Festival Theatre performances: 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.
THE TAXIDERMIST’S DAUGHTER Adapted for the stage by Kate Mosse A new play based on her novel
KATE MOSSE REFLECTS ON THE LANDSCAPE OF
THE TAXIDERMIST’S DAUGHTER Although The Taxidermist’s Daughter is a story of revenge and sexual violence, retribution, recovered memories and secrets, it is also a love letter to the wild and haunting landscape of the Fishbourne Marshes. Fishbourne is first mentioned in the 11thcentury Domesday Book as Fiseborne. There are houses of Elizabethan provenance, several Queen Anne, Georgian and handsome Victorian buildings, including the old Toll House, Clayton Cottage, and the elementary school that opened in 1876. When I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s, Fishbourne was still an old-fashioned village, even though the discovery of a jewel of a 1st-century Roman palace had brought archaeologists from all over the world to our quiet corner of Sussex. The flint-faced
13th-century church, with 14th-century tiles on the altar step, triple lancets and Purbeck shafts, sat in the fields to the east of the village. On the north wall, scratched crosses where medieval pilgrims making their way to the Shrine of St Richard of Chichester had left their antique graffiti. Pathways and lanes overgrown with cow parsley in summer. There were three pubs, a village shop, a Methodist chapel, a post office and the old Victorian laundry at the foot of Salthill Road next to the white-timbered Dame School. Fishbourne has always been a place of living history, where the past speaks to the present. Our house in Creek End was always full, a second home to other people’s children and a meeting place for neighbours and friends. But, just as important, was what lay beyond.