Chichester Festival 2010 - Preview
Preview by David Munro
AFTER the runaway success of Enron last year, the Festival Theatre has a hard act to follow this year.
To quote their preamble to the season – “…a sense of optimism is reflected in Chichester’s Festival 2010 season. The productions include satirical comedies, sumptuous dramas and a classic musical celebrating the glamour of Broadway. This upbeat mood is balanced by dramas which examine politics, class and human psychology, as well as a new musical version of one of the most poignant romances of all times…..”
So what have we got?
First off – Patrick Stewart returns as Shakespeare in a play by Edward Bond Bingo directed by Angus Jackson. This was originally produced in Exeter in 1973 and was first seen in London when it was produced at the Royal Court in August 1974 with Sir John Gielgud as Shakespeare (and Arthur Lowe as Ben Johnson!)
Subtitled Scenes of Love and Death, it deals with the playwright’s last days and the effect on him of proposed land enclosures in Stratford. Whether or not this inspired him to write King Lear you will have to see the play to find out – with Patrick Stewart in it how can you keep away?
This is followed by a new play Yes, Prime Minister by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, directed by Jonathan Lynn, based on the television situation- comedy of the early 1980’s starring Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds.
In this new version Prime Minister Jim Hacker (David Haig), Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby (Henry Goodman) and his Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley face a country in financial meltdown, with the only prospect of salvation coming from morally dubious allies. If the authors have maintained their flair for comedy as shown in the original TV shows this should be a riotously funny evening.
Next, a musical version of Love Story Inspired by Erich Segal’s best-selling novel; music composed by Howard Goodall, book by Stephen Clark and directed by Rachel Kavanaugh.
This has already been a successful film with Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw as the two students who fall in love, marry and then discover that the girl is dying – a tear-jerker of the first order. It will be interesting to see how it translates into a musical. Howard Goodall is a highly respected composer who has written several musicals, most notably The Hired Man, so the prospects are favourable.
42nd Street (directed by Paul Kerryson), which comes after, is a competent Broadway musical based on the film of the same name which in turn was based on a novel whose more gritty theme was lost in translation to the screen.
The stage version uses the musical score of the film by Harry Warren and Al Dubin augmented with numbers from other films written by the same pair.
It is the archetypal story of the chorus girl who goes on when the star falls ill and saves the show and contains the classic line “you’re going out a youngster, but you have got to come back a star”.
The director of the show in the show is terminally ill and in a tragic co-incidence the director of the original Broadway production, Gower Champion, died on the day the show opened.
It opened in London at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1984 and ran through to January 1989. It is basically a song and dance show and Paul Kerryson is a superb director of musicals who should be able to make it look good on the open stage of the Festival Theatre.
A double bill follows – The Critic by Richard Brinsley Sheridan and The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard – both directed by Jonathan Church. A pair of witty plays on the theatre and its foibles and those of them that frequent it.
The Critic concerns misadventures that arise when an author, Mr Puff, invites Sir Fretful Plagiary and the theatre critics Dangle and Sneer to a rehearsal of his play The Spanish Armada, Sheridan’s parody of the then fashionable tragic drama.
The Real Inspector Hound concerns two competing theatre critics, Moon and Birdboot, who attend an Agatha Christie type thriller and get drawn into the play and assist at arriving at its denouement when the murderer’s identity is revealed. Both plays are very funny in a tongue in cheek manner and should make a stimulating evening
Alternating with 42nd Street for most of July and August is Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (directed by Philip Prowse) with Rupert Everett making a return to the British Stage as Professor Henry Higgins, after his sojourn on Broadway in Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit “ with Angela Lansbury.
If there is anyone reading this who does not know the plot it concerns a misogynistic professor of phonetics who makes a bet he will make a cockney flower seller into a lady and arguably ruins her life.
Stephanie Cole plays his aristocratic mother who, while not approving, is sympathetic towards the girl. If you have only seen My Fair Lady it is worth seeing the original for comparison, if nothing else.
Class distinction also features large in the next production a new adaptation by Howard Brenton of the novel The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell and directed by Christopher Morahan.
The book deals with the life of a group of Edwardian working men, the “philanthropists”, who work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters, the hypocritical Christians, exploitative capitalists and corrupt councilors who make up the society of the times.
It illustrates the background of a poverty stricken class which formed the basis of the rise of socialism and the Labour party. It should be a thought-provoking if perhaps a somewhat conscious pricking evening.
Another portrait of an oppressive and repressive employer is The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen in a new adaptation by David Edgar and directed by Philip Franks – Solness is a middle aged Architect who fears the challenge of the younger generation and frustrates a young draftsman in his employ.
He ultimately is made to see the error of his ways by a young woman who persuades him to undertake an exploit which results in his death. I look forward to seeing what Mr. Edgar can do to revitalize this Victorian morality melodrama.
The final production is another adaptation of an old warhorse A Month In The Country by Ivan Turgenev, adapted by Brian Friel and also directed by Philip Franks.
This version was originally produced at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1992 and later produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Swan at Stratford in 1998 and transferred to the Pit in London in 1999.
Again, one is faced with the classic situation, the bored wife of a country landowner falls in love with her son’s tutor who is more attracted to her foster daughter.
After the eponymous month her husband’s suspicions result in the tutor having to leave and she returns to her previous boring existence. The part of the wife, Natalya, is one that attracts great actresses including Ingrid Bergman, Dorothy Tutin and Helen Mirren (twice).
No announcement has yet been made as to who is to play it this year so watch this space, it could be a vey interesting evening.
In addition to the above, Enron returns for a week in September prior to a nationwide tour; and there is a promenade production in the grounds of the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum of The Firework-Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman, adapted by Stephen Russell performed by the Chichester Youth Theatre.
Well there are the contenders in this year’s Chichester Stakes. Will any of them overtake last year’s champion? Who knows?
In my view there are one or two dark horses which just might. Why don’t you take a trip to Sussex and make your own mind up !
Listings:
BINGO by Edward Bond – April 15 – May 22, Minerva Theatre
YES, PRIME MINISTER by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn – May 13 – June 5, Festival Theatre
LOVE STORY by Erich Segal – May 29 – June 26, Minerva Theatre
42nd STREET – June 21 – August 28, Festival Theatre
THE CRITIC by Richard Brinsley Sheridan and THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND by Tom Stoppard – A double bill – July 2 – August 28, Minerva Theatre
PYGMALION by George Bernard Shaw – July 9 – August 27, Festival Theatre
THE RAGGED TROUSERED PHILANTHROPISTS by Robert Tressell, a new adaptation by Howard Brenton – July 15 – August 26, Minerva Theatre
THE MASTER BUILDER by Henrik Ibsen, a new adaptation by David Edgar – September 9 – October 9, Minerva Theatre
ENRON by Lucy Prebble – September 10 – 18, Festival Theatre
A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY by Ivan Turgenev, adapted by Brian Friel – September 24 – October 16, Festival Theatre
THE FIREWORK-MAKER’S DAUGHTER by Philip Pullman, adapted by Stephen Russell – July 30 – August 12, Promenade Performances
Chichester Festival Theatre
Oaklands Park, Chichester , West Sussex, PO19 6AP.
Evenings 7.30pm/Mat. Weds or Thurs. & Sat. 2pm
Box Office: 01234 781312.