Chichester Festival Theatre chairman hails strong summer of theatre

“A few of the things had been works in the pipeline beforehand but really this has been Justin’s first real season and I think it has been outstanding. I think it's been about the quality and also the variety and also about the audience reaction that we have had. I've had the pleasure of seeing all that we have done this season, and each piece has had a different quality under the theme of Englishness that Justin has had, and it has been fascinating to see the different views of Englishness. And it has also been great to see how the audiences have loved the variety. You have to remember that there are very few theatres in this country that are trying to produce this much new work of this quality in such a short time. It is a very unique capability that we have here.

“And it was fantastic that Cameron Mackintosh and Matthew Bourne entrusted us with Oliver! They are both delighted that it went so well. Something like 85,000 people came to see it. It was a huge success and I think it has to be one of the great highlights for me. I think it was the exuberance of the cast, the quality of the dancing and the sharpness of the music. But I also have to say that I really, really enjoyed The Caretaker which was Justin's first show that he directed himself for us here. I loved the acting and the set and the way that it was brought to life in a way that really strongly evoked the period. The other great thing about The Caretaker was the show was produced according to the new theatre Green Book, guidelines for productions. I think 70 per cent of the materials used in the show were recycled. It was at the higher levels of Green Book testing and sustainability. It was great from the creative point of view, but it was also great from the Green Book point of view.”

Mark also loved The Spy Who Came In From The Cold: “It was a complex story and you had to focus. You've got things in the future and things in the past and things that were in his head and things that were real but I thought it worked tremendously well. But actually I loved everything this season. I know I'm somewhat biased but I do still have critical faculties and I think that the whole season was really good.

“I only experienced one Daniel Evans season in its entirety here but I definitely think that the quality of that has been sustained. It has been quality, quality, quality but the difference is the different choices that have been made. I think Justin's central focus on drama has been very clear and that’s what we have seen, just as Daniel's great strength perhaps was in the musicals. It's a balancing act and so yes maybe this season has had a slightly different feel but that's great. It's about different personalities and the staff have loved having a different personality around the place. They are both great dynamic personalities but the difference is good too.

“And numbers have been very strong. Overall the shows have done well to very well across the season with Oliver! being particularly strong for us. At the end of the day you want big audiences and that's one of the tests we have but we're not trying to be slavishly commercial. We want to keep developing our audiences which means that we may do some shows that attract perhaps not so many people but which are still valuable to us in terms of developing our audiences and perhaps looking at other directions for the future. You want to be pushing the envelope but definitely it has been a very successful season in terms of the numbers of people coming through.”