Chichester Festival Theatre 2016 Season

Oaklands Park, Chichester, from Monday, April 18, to New Year’s Eve

IT’S the end of an era at Chichester Festival Theatre, as the team of artistic director Jonathan Church and Alan Finch leave for pastures new after 11 years.

But they are going out with a bang, with two world premiere plays, two new musicals and appearances by Hugh Bonneville, Joseph Fiennes, Patricia Hodge, James Bolam and Anne Reid over the summer.

Below Duncan Hall rounds up what to get in the diary.

Travels With My Aunt

Minerva Theatre, Mon, April 18, to Sat, June 4

A NEW musical based on the Graham Greene novel about a retired bank manager’s life being turned upside down by his titular relative.

Patricia Hodge and Steve Pacey take the starring roles, directed by Christopher Luscombe, with music from the team behind Betty Blue Eyes.

An Enemy Of The People

Festival Theatre, Fri, April 22, to Sat, May 21

HUGH Bonneville stars as Dr Stockmann, whose shock discovery leads him to call for the closure of the public baths in Henrik Ibsen’s play exploring power, influence and who holds real authority in society.

Ross

Festival Theatre, Fri, June 3, to Sat, June 25

ADRIAN Noble returns to his former home town to direct Joseph Fiennes as Lawrence of Arabia in his first Chichester Festival production.

Terence Rattigan’s 1960 epic play explores the deeply conflicted man behind the legend.

First Light

Minerva Theatre, Fri, June 10, to Sat, July 2

SCREENWRITER Mark Hayhurst’s Chichester debut Taken At Midnight, set in Hitler’s Germany, transferred to the West End last year.

With this new play he turns the clock back even further to explore the story of soldiers considering desertion on the eve of the Battle Of The Somme.

Fracked!

Minerva Theatre, Fri, July 8, to Sat, Aug 6

ACTOR Richard Wilson, best known for playing Victor Meldrew in One Foot In The Grave, directs James Bolam and Anne Reid in this new black comedy by Alistair Beaton following village protestors campaigning against shale gas drilling.

Half A Sixpence

Festival Theatre, Thurs, July 14, to Sat, Sept 3

DOWNTON Abbey writer Julian Fellowes has teamed up with the musical team behind Mary Poppins for this new adaptation of the musical based on H G Wells’s novel Kipps.

Bryan Dick plays the lowly draper’s assistant who unexpectedly inherits a fortune.

Strife

Minerva Theatre, Fri, Aug 12, to Sat, Sept 10

JULIAN Glover stars in a rare revival of John Galsworthy’s play based around a 1909 miner’s strike in South Wales.

This House

Minerva Theatre, Fri, Sept 23, to Sat, Oct 29

FOLLOWING two sell-out runs at the National Theatre, Jeremy Herrin brings James Graham’s political play set in the House of Commons during the 1974 economic crisis and hung parliament.

Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing

Festival Theatre, Sat, Sept 24, to Sat, Oct 29

THE Royal Shakespeare Company, directed by Christopher Luscombe, bring a double bill of the Bard’s finest romantic comedies to mark his 400th anniversary, set at the beginning and end of the First World War.

Peter Pan

Festival Theatre, Sat, Dec 17, to New Year’s Eve

FOLLOWING the stunning success of last year’s summer production Running Wild, which transfers to the Regents Park Open Air Theatre this year, Chichester Festival Youth Theatre is back with J M Barrie’s boy who never grew up.

For times and prices visit www.cft.org.uk or call 01243 781312.

Online booking for friends opens on Mon, Feb 22, and public booking from Wed, March 2.

More than 10,000 tickets will be available for £10, and the £8.50 ticket scheme for 16 to 25-year-olds, renamed Prologue, is returning.