Artistic director looks back...

A huge season – five plays on the main-house stage and five in the Minerva – has come to a strong conclusion at Chichester Festival Theatre.

CFT artistic director Justin Audibert says he can't help but feel a little bit smug at being able to finish the season with Antigone Exits and A Midsummer Night's Dream running simultaneously, a very bold Dream alongside a very striking piece of new writing.

“There are not many theatres in this country where you could have two such different plays on at the same time.”

And for Justin, it underlines the strength of the season he has just delivered – a highlight of which for many will be the midsummer My Fair Lady.

“You can hope for that kind of success, but you can't predict it but what we had was the most joyful experience with the show, with a brilliant creative team, all people at the absolute top of their game and a delightful company that were just brilliant.”

Among them Keziah Ibe on professional debut as Eliza: “And I think Keziah’s introduction to the professional world was one of the absolute highlights for me. She was sensational. She has a quality of openness that is very hard not to just warm to but that just endears her to you, but she has a voice which is beautiful and her acting has got detail and fire.

“With (director) Rachel (Kavanaugh), we were talking about the show, and the idea of having a graduate in the role really appealed because of the journey that Eliza goes on. It was a risk maybe but there was method in the madness! The character of Eliza goes on this incredible journey and you kind of feel that a graduate would go on a similar journey.”

The show was a sell-out by the end, selling overall 90-plus per cent of capacity. And that was crucial. As Justin always says, the musical has to be the backbone of the season.

“But it was great to start with (Roald Dahl's) The BFG opening the season with a brilliant family show, really attracting new audiences and hopefully inspiring children with a sense of what the theatre can be, and then we finished with A Midsummer Night's Dream. And to have these three great big theatrical statements that really landed across very different genres and different forms just felt really special.

“For A Midsummer Night's Dream, well, the cast were tremendous.”

The production transposed the play to the 1990s Sussex rave scene: “And I think that the conceit really worked because it matched the bonkers-ness of the play, and I think bonkers is the right word. The play has an anarchy at its heart, and I think we found a way of translating that into our version with a fantastic cast. We transposed everything to Chichester in 1994. I did Hamlet last year and that was much more traditional but I think there is room for everything!”

Perhaps a few people complained that the approach wasn't what A Midsummer Night's Dream needed: “But we had people saying that our production was a production that Shakespeare would have loved. You can't please everybody all the time. What you're hoping to do is to offer, across the season, things that people can connect with, and what we hope is that whether you like the plays or not, you can't deny the quality of the acting and the quality of the staging.”

Justin set his stall out early on when he took over as artistic director at Chichester Festival Theatre, saying that the main house was about epic theatre: “We had three big shows and that's what that stage is for.”

Magic by David Haig, starring David Haig and Hadley Fraser, was the second play in the main house, exploring the relationship between Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle. Response was maybe slightly more mixed.

“I think Magic is a fantastic piece of writing and it was really well acted, but I wonder if maybe because of the nature of it, it was not quite the right show for that space. We couldn't have done it in the Minerva in the way it was written because of the illusions that we had in it but I wonder if the intimacy of being in a smaller space might have helped it. But I would go back to the quality of the acting and the quality of the writing, and I don't think you could argue with either of those.”

Completing the main house summer season was Atonement by Ian McEwan, adapted for the stage by Christopher Hampton, directed by Adam Penford. Again, the response was rather more mixed.

“I think lots of people really responded to the play and to the actors and the sense of style but I think maybe we didn't find a way of persuading why we took the book and put it onto the stage as a piece of theatre. I don't think we quite found out the theatrical necessity for why we were telling the story on the stage in the way we did. There was some really elegant, beautiful staging and some great acting but I don't think we quite managed to say why it was a theatre piece.”

Over in the Minerva, the season started with the world premiere of Eclipse, written and directed by John Morton: “And I think that was one of the best Minerva shows of my time. You had that feeling in the Minerva that you were just so much in that world that you were actually the wallpaper to it and that you were actually there. You had the quality of the acting and the quality of John's writing and you had that fantastic design. I think everybody has been in that kitchen. Simon Higlett's design was just extraordinary.

“And I think if you have known someone in the later stages of their life, someone who is slowly dying in a very natural way, then I think you would have recognised the conversations in the play, you would have recognised every cup of tea that was being made and drunk. I just felt that it rang so true. I really wondered about young people who have maybe not been through that experience of losing someone but I think the fact is that the piece really connected to them as well in a very real way.”

Next up Geraldine James and Gabriel Byrne made their Chichester debut in 45 Years: “And that was another cracker. It was such a fantastic premise and what a privilege to have Geraldine and Gabriel acting so beautifully. I think it was another one that lingers. What I loved about Eclipse was that it was happening in real time but with 45 Years as an audience you had to do the work and fill the gaps as it slowly built and built and built.”

Justin was similarly pleased with Atlantis by Emily White, directed by Guy Jones, a piece about climate change and a play, like the others in the Minerva season, exploring themes of home and belonging: “These were plays about what is home and what is belonging and what is safety but all plays exploring these things in so many different ways.”

“Atlantis is still with me. There was something that was brilliant about the family and the exploration of the importance of their political acts but also of the cost of those acts to their domestic life. You hear these stories about coastal erosion, and the fact is that we were doing this in the middle of a heat wave. It felt like this play was in the right place and at the right moment.”

Perhaps less successful was a small and quiet light by Stephanie Street, co-directed by Diyan Zora and Elin Schofield, a co-production with Orange Tree Theatre, the tale of Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan (1914-1944), an extraordinarily courageous woman who paid the ultimate price for her heroic fight against fascism during World War Two.

“The interesting thing is that people found it the most difficult to follow because of its non-linear structure and I think also partly because of the decision, which I understood the rationale for, to have an all-female cast.”

Was that the right decision? Maybe it would have been better if it hadn't been all-female, Justin admits: “I think it is a question that is worth asking but we went to the Orange Tree and there was some further script work that was done and I think that really helped clarify things. That's the thing about when you're doing new plays. It's good to get a second go at them when you can tweak and adjust.”

Completing the Minerva season was Antigone Exits by Nina Segal, directed by Jeff James: “I think it was the most impactful show in the Minerva. People have been affected by it. There were a lot of very strong visceral responses to it.

“And I can't help but feel a little bit smug, the fact that we had Antigone Exits and A Midsummer Night's Dream at the same time. We had people who were doing the double in one day to see them both.”

Justin was pleased with the Minerva season: “You are aiming for perfection but I do like a Minerva musical and I do also like a rediscovered classic play in the Minerva. Maybe we have to add that into the mix. Doing new plays is always harder. There is more to manage and more to curate than if you are doing revivals.

“But overall we have had a very good year. Financially and human numbers wise it has been good.”

And at the time of speaking, Justin is pleased to say that 90 per cent of next year's season is in place as he heads towards the season announcement early next year.