Galactic war looms at the Festival of Chichester

The show is Cyclone: Femme Finale, the final part in a trilogy which has played out at the Festival of Chichester in the past couple of years. It will be at the New Park Centre, Chichester, PO19 7XY on Saturday, July 5 at 6:30pm. Tickets £10, student/senior £7 are available from The Novium.

As we start, an alien mafia is just days away from total universal domination, but there's still hope to be found among Louise’s freedom fighter friends as the show, conceived as an audio drama, unfolds live on stage.

Erika Sanderson, one of the company, explains: “This is part three of the trilogy that Graz (Richards) has written for the Festival of Chichester. Cyclone started as an audio drama but we have been doing this live show for the last few years based on the audio series. The live show has broadened it out a little bit.

“Cyclone is a group of freedom fighters who are battling against an evil galactic police regime. That's the starting point for the whole story. The show last year ended on a bit of a cliffhanger with an epic space battle but you don't have to have seen the last one to enjoy this one. There's a really good summary that is given as an introduction by our narrator and by one of our lead characters.

“Louise is the Sainsbury's checkout girl from Bognor Regis who has found herself in an intergalactic war. It is set in the 1980s and she meets up with another one of the characters who whisks her off to space. She is considered to be a vital key in the intergalactic battle so they have travelled through space and time to find her. But there is an introduction which will give you all the story you need to know so far.

“There are a lot of themes that are explored in the show. The majority of the cast of female so it has got a lot of women's perspective on things. The alien regime is very much against women's autonomy. The Cyclone group is fighting against that. The police force are taking orders from an alien race that wants to control everything, and the Cyclone group are saying no to that. When you think of what is happening in the world right now, you can see that it's very relevant!”

Elements are certainly tongue in cheek, Erika says, but there's a very special and beautiful speech to look forward to from Louise…

“The whole thing has been purely for Chichester and for the festival. We've got actors travelling from all over the country to be part of this for the festival. There are about eight or ten of us in the company in total. We've got a bigger cast than we had last year because we've introduced some new characters including some puppetry.”