WATCH: New Chichester Festival Theatre artistic director on his hopes and plans

Justin takes over full time at Chichester on July 10. For the moment he is sharing his days between Chichester and London’s Unicorn Theatre where he is currently artistic director. A freelance writer and director who has directed productions for the RSC and the National Theatre, he is relishing the challenges that Chichester will bring. Justin is promising continuity but says inevitably his tastes, as they emerge here, will be different to those of his predecessor Daniel Evans, who has now taken over at the RSC.

“I think there are two reasons I wanted to come here,“ he says, “one of which is that once you have led an organisation you really want to do it again because the skills that you learn and also the mistakes that you make mean that you can build on what you have done. Definitely once you've been an artistic director you want to go back to the role but what was so appealing about Chichester, when I rang around friends in the business and I did know Daniel as well already, was the quality. Through talking to my peers, actors, directors, designers, casting directors, everybody said that the work in Chichester is absolutely immaculate and that they have always had a brilliant time making work here. And I would say that that is not true of every theatre. Also I knew Dale (Rooks, CFT education and youth theatre director) a little bit and I had heard a lot about her work. And for me learning and participation have to be absolutely key to what you do in the theatre. Imagination and inspiration are so much part of the engagement that you have through making work together and it is just so important: what you are putting your labour into you have to love. For me community engagement is vital. It is one of the things that make me really happy in the theatre, something that I absolutely want to do. I love the effect that a piece of work can have on the community and then you can be working in the community, you can be making people’s lives with dementia a little bit better. We are a subsidised theatre and part of that subsidy should be about making it absolutely accessible to everybody. That's something that I really, really care about. So it's that combination of such inclusivity and community which is 100 per cent underpinned by the excellence of the work that just makes Chichester so appealing. But also not to be sniffed at is the fact that I love the big mass epic shows. The shows that I love making are things like The Taming Of The Shrew that I did at the RSC. Those are the big shows that I want to do. And I just love the fact that it is not an end-on theatre here. That really appeals because I believe that being able to see other members of the audience really changes the atmosphere. I really love the feeling that we're all in a crucible together. That's why I go to the theatre – to share an experience with other people. We might not be interpreting that experience all in the same way but we're all sharing that emotional and intellectual experience together, and that is really important when we're living in an age where we're all somewhat isolated. Bringing people together is just fantastic.

“So yes, my big passion is for the big epic plays but I do also love the new writing and Chichester can do both of those things. But I'm also very keen on theatres that make a big commitment to sustainability. And I think that's a huge challenge in the years to come for all of us. Everybody has to be doing it, and I want to be ahead of the curve. I want to be innovating. The theatre green book (a UK-wide initiative to help theatre work and make productions more sustainably) is really important to me and at the Unicorn we won the creative green award. Chichester is on a bigger scale and we've got some good groundwork here but I really want to go forward in terms of sustainability.”

Justin takes over full time at Chichester on July 10, but has been working at Chichester a couple of days a week for a while, splitting his time between Chichester and the Unicorn: “And the team here at Chichester are brilliant. They are great. The main thing is that (executive director) Kathy Bourne is just amazing and full of energy and life. We've got a great board which is wonderful but the thing that is really taking me aback is how welcoming the audiences have been. It's very unusual to have that passion. Daniel handed over to me so brilliantly and he's just such a wonderful person but I said to him what is really blowing me away is how welcoming people have been. I really get the impression that people want me to do well. It is not just a question of people sitting back and saying ‘Impress me!’”

But the fact is that Justin will inevitably be different to Daniel, his predecessor: “I'm sure that there were a lot of brilliant candidates (for artistic director) and it's going to be a real privilege to serve here and I do think that Daniel and I share quite a lot of values but I do think that there are probably going to be some key differences of taste. The point is that I like to think that I can add something different and I do think there are things that we can do differently. Part of that is that I am someone with a background in family work which is something that I really care about. And also the demographic of Chichester is changing. We want to keep our fantastic core loyal audiences but I'm sure that there are people moving to Chichester that we have really got room to engage with.”

There's certainly a sense of history and continuity: “You think of the people who have run this place before like Daniel Evans and Laurence Olivier and Jonathan Church and Derek Jacobi, but I don't find that daunting. I find that inspiring. I find it uplifting. This is where Laurence Olivier was trying to work out how he was going to make the National Theatre work and I just think that's awesome. I want to honour that legacy with really great actors and great directors doing really big meaty plays.”

Justin will be announcing his first season next year. For the moment he is overseeing the summer which Daniel put in place: “And I really like that idea. I'm the midwife to the shows that Daniel has programmed and hopefully I'm going to be supportive and kind to all of them but it is going to be great to have the chance to watch and look and see what works and to think what I would do differently. It's going to give me a great chance to watch and think.”

As artistic director of the Unicorn Theatre Justin has directed Pinocchio, Marvin’s Binoculars, The Canterville Ghost, Anansi The Spider, Aesop’s Fables and Beowulf. He directed The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Stiles and Drewe in March 2023, a show which will come to the Minerva this year.