Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles? By Adrienne Kennedy and Adam P. Kennedy
Justin Audibert and Kathy Bourne Photograph by Peter Flude
Festival 2023 Welcome to this performance of Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles? It is a real privilege to be presenting the UK premiere of a play written by the unique and ground-breaking American playwright Adrienne Kennedy, who achieved her Broadway debut last year at the age of 91. Written in collaboration with her son Adam P. Kennedy, Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles? is the remarkable true story of her attempt to adapt John Lennon’s book for the National Theatre in the 1960s. It’s a play that is particularly apposite for Chichester Festival Theatre, since it was here that Laurence Olivier established the company that was to become the core of the National Theatre at its first home, The Old Vic. It’s intriguing to speculate that had things gone differently, Adrienne’s play may even have made an appearance here in the 1960s. We are delighted to welcome Rakie Ayola who is making her Chichester debut in the role of Adrienne. Winner of a BAFTA
Best Supporting Actress Award for her role in TV drama Anthony, Rakie’s many leading television roles also include The Pact, Grace, Shetland, No Offence and Holby City. Her recent theatre work includes On Bear Ridge for National Theatre Wales/ Royal Court, for which she won the Black British Theatre Award for Best Actress. We also welcome director Diyan Zora and actor Jack Benjamin, who are working at Chichester for the first time too. There are three more premieres to come in the Minerva this season: the musical Rock Follies, based on the iconic 1970s TV series; Deborah Frances-White’s explosive new comedy Never Have I Ever; and a gripping political drama from Guardian investigative reporter Harry Davies, The Inquiry. We hope to see you for those too, and that you enjoy today’s performance.
Justin Audibert Artistic Director Designate
Kathy Bourne Executive Director
Rock Follies Based on the television series written by Howard Schuman Book by Chloë Moss Songs by Howard Schuman and Andy Mackay With songs from the ground-breaking 1970s TV series, this punchy new musical is a rousing, riotous rollercoaster of woman power! Dominic Cooke directs a cast including Carly Bawden, Samuel Barnett, Angela Marie Hurst and Zizi Strallen.
Minerva Theatre 24 July – 26 August Tickets from £10 Book at cft.org.uk Songs used by kind permission of Universal Music Publishing.
Never Have I Ever By Deborah Frances-White
Minerva Theatre 1 – 30 September Tickets from £10 Book at cft.org.uk
Alexandra Roach, Greg Wise and Susan Wokoma in an explosive, savagely funny first play by comedian, screenwriter and host of the global hit podcast The Guilty Feminist Deborah Frances-White, directed by Emma Butler.
Festival Fridays Every Friday, a group of 9 – 10 yearolds from local primary schools across the Chichester district arrive at the Festival Theatre. They are children who are identified as struggling with formal education and might therefore benefit from a programme of creative activities working with specialist arts practitioners. Handpicked by their headteachers, the ‘Festival Fridays’ programme is designed to re-engage these children by offering a creative environment which contrasts with their formal school setting, crucially before the transition to secondary education at age 11. This vibrant and practical approach allows them to explore skills that develop their literacy, social development, confidence, self-esteem and well-being. We identified the children who were going to take part in the project as those who would really benefit from an opportunity like this. For example, one has an EHCP for ADHD. They try
incredibly hard with learning but are significantly behind in all areas that require them to write and record any responses. They are incredibly articulate and have a brilliant mind – particularly for science and technical areas of the curriculum – but a busy classroom can be a very difficult place for them to navigate. We knew we wanted to provide an opportunity for them to build selfesteem and belief in themselves, and this seemed to be perfect. – School leader Unique amongst theatres across England, the programme was devised after consultation with teachers and senior leaders at Sussex schools and piloted during 2019-20. Following positive feedback, a new cohort of pupils was welcomed for the 2021-22 academic year, with additional workshops during the summer holidays, led by freelance facilitators and CFT staff. The day starts with a healthy breakfast and then lunch, part-provided through a partnership with local food reclamation charity UK Harvest,
before launching into activities from storytelling, script work and prop-making to costume design and movement. Pupils also see family-friendly shows such as Pinocchio. My favourite thing about Festival Fridays is that we had amazing opportunities to do stuff like acting and the performance that we have been working so hard on. I hope that my hard work has paid off. I hope that it has meant a lot for my mum. - Participant For the children taking part in the 2021/22 programme, the year culminated in a remarkable performance in the Minerva by the participants, who had not only come up with ideas for the content – which included drama, dance and storytelling (plus a hilarious filmed pastiche of professional theatre roles, from marketing to make-up) – but designed and created a set. The invited audience of families, teachers, observers and staff were bowled over.
What a finale! The children were absolute stars and I was heart-burstingly proud of the performance, as was their Headteacher. Their confidence, dedication, creativity, skill and energy in the show is testimony to your team’s efforts of encouragement, support and inspiration. - Teacher All the Festival Fridays children receive invitations to join Chichester Festival Youth Theatre workshops, with bursary places ensuring no financial barrier, to encourage continued engagement between pupils, their families and the Theatre. It’s absolutely amazing they can continue on this journey with CFT after the project and building on that confidence gained so far. We are incredibly grateful for this project, and how much it has changed their life. - Parent
From cracking cakes and brilliant barista coffee to delicious dining in The Brasserie, we have plenty of options to keep you, your family and friends feeling full and happy.
Meet us for drinks
Fancy yourself as a gin connoisseur? You'll be delighted by our extensive menu in the Minerva Bar. Why not treat yourself to one of our promotional gins available at just £4* for the run of Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles? But if gin's not your thing, don’t worry – we also have a wide range of local ales, lagers, wines and other spirits.
*gin only, mixers on top
Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles? By Adrienne Kennedy and Adam P. Kennedy
Adrienne Kennedy: shapeshifter In her tenth decade, the playwright is still full of giddy, nervous energy, her moods and memories changing as fast as the tonal jump-cuts in her plays
Adrienne Kennedy overlooking the Hudson River Photo courtesy of Adrienne Kennedy
The following is an edited version of an article by Scott Brown, first published in The New York Times Style Magazine, 2 December 2022. The playwright Adrienne Kennedy will make her Broadway debut this month at the age of 91, with Ohio State Murders (1992), a play she tried for years to commit to paper. ‘I couldn’t do it,’ she recalls. It was 1989, and she’d been commissioned by the Great Lakes Theater in Cleveland, her hometown, to write about her experience as an undergraduate, decades ago, at Ohio State University. She was about to return her advance. And then, she says, ‘I just happened to be in the earthquake.’
Kennedy has a winking sense of humor that might seem incongruous with her body of work.
Small and unassuming – she’s 5 foot 1 – with a voice that evokes the singsong politesse of Hollywood’s golden age, Kennedy has a winking sense of humor that might seem incongruous with her body of work, which is often described as dark, difficult and abstract. (In 2018, the New Yorker critic Hilton Als called her oeuvre ‘a long and startling fugue, composed of language that is impactful and impacted but ever-moving, ever-shifting.’) Kennedy herself is a shapeshifter: in her 10th decade, she’s still full of giddy, nervous energy, her moods and memories changing as fast as the tonal jump-cuts in her plays. On this October morning, she delivers ‘I just happened to be in the earthquake’ with the rhythm of ‘I just happened to be in the neighborhood.’ A moment from now, she’ll recall the way Ginger Rogers wore her hair in Kitty Foyle, the 1940 melodrama that was one of her mother’s favorite films; earlier, she was mooning over Frank Sinatra in Higher and Higher (1944): ‘I still want to marry Frank Sinatra,’ she says, sitting amid various curios – a bust of Caesar, a West African djembe drum – in her 61-year-old writer son Adam’s home in Williamsburg, Va., where she’s lived for the past decade, along with his wife, Renee, and their four children. ‘It doesn’t go away. Why? Why is that?’