Chichester Festival Theatre’s Festival 2025 has been announced by Artistic Director, Justin Audibert and Executive Director, Kathy Bourne.
Festival 2025 includes five world and two UK premieres, two musicals, and masterpieces from world drama. The company includes Mark Addy, Natalie Dormer, Beverley Knight, Tom Rosenthal, Jenna Russell and Giles Terera; directors making their Chichester debuts include Gregory Doran, Katy Rudd, Phillip Breen, Monique Touko, Kathleen Marshall, Hannah Joss, Anthony Lau and Roy Alexander Weise.
Musicals:
• Kathleen Marshall directs and choreographs a brand new production of Irving Berlin’s classic tap extravaganza Top Hat
• A new musical, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, adapted by Rachel Joyce from her bestselling novel, with music and lyrics by Passenger, directed by Katy Rudd, starring Mark Addy and Jenna Russell.
World premieres:
• Gogol’s sparkling satire The Government Inspector in a new adaptation by Phil Porter, directed by Gregory Doran, starring actor and comedian Tom Rosenthal
• Choir, a new play by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti celebrating music and togetherness, directed by Hannah Joss
• Safe Space, a new play by Jamie Bogyo, delving into volatile campus politics, directed by Roy Alexander Weise.
Classic and modern dramas:
• Natalie Dormer in Anna Karenina, Tolstoy’s romantic masterpiece in a new adaptation written and directed by Phillip Breen
• Beverley Knight in Marie and Rosetta by George Brant, directed by Monique Touko in a co-production with Rose Theatre and ETT
• Giles Terera plays the title role in Hamlet, directed by Justin Audibert in Chichester’s first ever production of Shakespeare’s great tragedy
• William Golding’s compelling adventure Lord of the Flies, adapted by Nigel Williams, 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, performed by Chichester Festival Youth Theatre to mark their 40th anniversary and directed by Dale Rooks
• Stiles and Drewe’s The Three Little Pigs, a co-production with the Unicorn Theatre for young families at Christmas
• Looking ahead to Festival 2026, Roald Dahl’s The BFG, adapted by Tom Wells, in a coproduction with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Roald Dahl Story Company, will be directed by Daniel Evans.
