Announced by Artistic Director Justin Audibert and Executive Director Kathy Bourne, the Chichester's Festival programme for 2025 it includes five world and two UK premières, two musicals and world dramas
The company includes Mark Addy, Natalie Dormer, Beverley Knight, Tom Rosenthal, Jenna Russell and Giles Terera, with directors making their Chichester debuts including Gregory Doran, Katy Rudd, Phillip Karen, Monique Touko, Kathleen Marshall, Hannah Joss, Anthony Lau and Roy Alexander Weise.
For the musicals, Kathleen Marshall directs and choreographs a new production of Irving Berlin's Top Hat, while a new musical, The Unlikely Piilgrimage of Harold Fry, adapted by Rachel Joyce from her bestselling novel with music and lyrics by Passenger, will be directed by Katy Rudd and star Mark Addy and Jenna Russell.
A new adaptation of Gogol’s satire The Government Inspector by Phil Porter will be directed by Gregory Doran, starring actor and comedian Tom Rosenthal. Choir, a new play by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti celebrating music and togetherness, will be directed by Hannah Joss, while Safe Space, a new play by Jamie Bogyo delving into volatile campus politics, will be directed by Roy Alexander Weise.
Natalie Dormer will star in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in a new adaptation written and directed by Phillip Breen, Beverley Knight will appear in Marie and Rosetta by George Brant directed by Monique Toukoin, Giles Terera will play the title role in Hamlet directed by Justin Audibert and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, adapted by Nigel Williams, will be directed by Anthony Lau.
For family audiences, the first stage production of Matt Haig’s A Boy Called Christmas, adapted by Philip Wilson with music by Tom Brady, will be performed by Chichester Festival Youth Theatre to mark their 40th anniversary, directed by Dale Rooks, and Stiles and Drewe’s The Three Little Pigs, a co-production with Unicorn Theatre, can be seen at Christmas.
Looking ahead to Festival 2026, Roald Dahl's The BFG, adapted by Tom Wells, in a co-production with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Roald Dahl Story Company, will be directed by Daniel Evans.