THEATREWORLD

Chichester Festival Theatre celebrates its 50^th birthday with an anniversary season that echoes and acknowledges the past while also looking to the future.

Uncle Vanya was part of Chichester’s very first season in 1962 and became a key part of its history and is revisited during Festival 2012. The Way of the World in 1984 has also become an emblematic production; the play will feature again this year.

Many of the actors and directors who have been such an important part of Chichester’s recent success return during Festival 2012. Directors Philip Franks, Angus Jackson, Rachel Kavanaugh, Jonathan Kent and Trevor Nunn and actors Roger Allam, Henry Goodman, Penelope Keith and Michael Pennington all continue their close relationship with Chichester during this ambitious landmark season.

Distinguished actor Derek Jacobi will also feature during Festival 2012 in a production of Heartbreak House.

Alongside these links to Chichester’s history, the commitment to developing new work remains equally important and Festival 2012 will feature two world premieres; A Marvellous Year for Plums by Hugh Whitemore and Canvas by Michael Wynne, as well as Surprises, a brand new play by Alan Ayckbourn, alongside his much-loved classic Absurd Person Singular.

New work will also feature in Theatre on the Fly, a temporary third auditorium which will be built on Oaklands Park, echoing the days of The Tent, the 1983 predecessor to the Minerva Theatre.

UNCLE VANYA by Anton Chekhov

Translated by Michael Frayn

30 March – 28 April, Minerva Theatre (Press Night: Thursday 5 April 7.00pm

Director: Jeremy Herrin

Designer: Peter McKintosh

Sound Designer: Fergus O’Hare

Festival 2012 opens with a new production of the play that marked a turning point in the fortunes of the Festival Theatre during its first season in 1962.

For years Vanya and his niece have worked tirelessly to keep the family’s run-down estate from ruin. The return of Vanya’s brother-in-law and his captivating wife, coupled with the visits of the charismatic Doctor Astrov, bring old loyalties and new loves into conflict in Chekhov’s masterly exploration of his characters’ passions, hopes and desires.

Anton Chekhov’s plays include The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters and The Seagull.

Michael Frayn has translated most of Chekhov’s plays. His own work includes the plays Noises Off and Copenhagen, as well as the novels Spies and Headlong.

The cast features Roger Allam whose credits include Falstaff in Henry IV Parts I and II, for which he won the 2011 Olivier Award for Best Actor. In the same year, he received the Evening Standard Best Comedy Award for the film Tamara Drewe. He last appeared at Chichester in Pravda (Festival 06). Dervla Kirwan’s theatre credits include Exiles and Aristocrats and Betrayal; while her television and film includes Ondine, The Silence and The Fuse. Timothy West’s numerous theatre credits include The Collection, Quartet, King Lear and A Number. His screen credits include Exile, Bleak House, Iris and Endgame.

Jeremy Herrin directed South Downs for Festival 2011; the production transfers to the West End’s Harold Pinter Theatre in April. He is Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre where his credits include Haunted Child, The Heretic and That Face. Other credits include Absent Friends, Death and the Maiden and Much Ado About Nothing.

THE WAY OF THE WORLD by William Congreve

13 April – 5 May, Festival Theatre (Press Night: Friday 20 April 7.00pm)

Director: Rachel Kavanaugh

Designer: Paul Farnsworth
Lighting Designer: Howard Harrison

Music: Terry Davies
Sound Designer: Matt McKenzie

William Congreve’s witty restoration comedy is a sparkling depiction of a superficial society in which love and money are inextricably linked. Mirabell sets out to marry Millamant but he must first outwit her aunt, the vain and fanciful Lady Wishfort.

Congreve’s plays include The Double Dealer, The Old Bachelor, Love for Love and The Mourning Bride.

Penelope Keith plays Lady Wishfort in this delightful verbal battle of the sexes. Her previous appearances at Chichester include The Merry Wives of Windsor, Entertaining Angels, The Importance of Being Earnest, In Praise of Rattigan and The Rivals.

Rachel Kavanaugh’s Chichester credits include Love Story, The Music Man and A Small Family Business. She was Artistic Director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre until 2011.

A MARVELLOUS YEAR FOR PLUMS by Hugh Whitemore WORLD PREMIERE

11 May – 2 June, Festival Theatre (Press Night: Thursday 17 May 7.00pm)

Director: Philip Franks

Designer: Simon Higlett

Lighting Designer: James Whiteside

Music: Matthew Scott

Hugh Whitemore’s sophisticated political thriller examines a flashpoint in British history that still resonates today - the Suez Crisis in 1956. As his health collapses, Prime Minister Anthony Eden faces the prospect of leading his country into war. Meanwhile his friends, colleagues and opponents deal with political and emotional crises of their own.

Hugh Whitemore’s credits include Stevie, Pack of Lies, Breaking the Code, The Best of Friends, A Letter of Resignation, 84, Charing Cross Road and The Gathering Storm, which won an Emmy Award for Best Script, the American Writers’ Guild Award and was named the Best Single Drama by the Broadcasting Press Guild in 2003.

Philip Franks’ productions for Chichester include The Deep Blue Sea, Rattigan’s Nijinsky, The Master Builder, Separate Tables, Collaboration, Taking Sides and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. He is also an actor.

CANVAS by Michael Wynne WORLD PREMIERE

18 May – 16 June, Minerva Theatre (Press Night: Thursday 24 May 7.00pm)

Director: Angus Jackson

Designer: Jonathan Fensom

Sound Designer: Gareth Fry

The world premiere of a new comedy which takes a witty look at the dilemmas and struggles of modern life.. Three couples attempt to get away from it all on a glamorous camping holiday but find that their rural idyll isn’t so perfect after all.

Canvas is Michael Wynne’s first play for Chichester. His last play, The Priory at the Royal Court Theatre, won the 2010 Olivier Award for Best Comedy. Other credits include The People are Friendly, and The Knocky (Royal Court Theatre), Sell Out and Dirty Wonderland (Frantic Assembly) and the recent Christmas film Lapland starring Sue Johnston.

Angus Jackson is Associate Director at Chichester where his credits include The Browning Version, Wallenstein, Funny Girl, The Waltz of the Toreadors, The Father and Carousel. His production of Bingo with Patrick Stewart, which premiered at Chichester during Festival 2010, opens at the Young Vic in February while The Browning Version transfers to the Harold Pinter Theatre in April. He has also directed Elmina’s Kitchen, Fix Up, Rocket to the Moon and The Power of Yes for the National Theatre.

KISS ME, KATE

Music and lyrics by Cole Porter

Book by Sam and Bella Spewack

18 June – 1 September, Festival Theatre (Press Night: Wednesday 27 June 7.00pm)

Director: Trevor Nunn

Designer: Robert Jones

Choreographer: Stephen Mear

Dance Arrangements, Musical Supervisor & Musical Director: Gareth Valentine

Lighting Designer: Tim Mitchell

Orchestrator: Chris Egan

Sound Designer: Paul Groothuis

This exuberant reworking of The Taming of the Shrew is a delightful collision between the worlds of gun-toting gangsters, sparring actors and Shakespeare’s original characters. In a classic show-within-a-show, Lilli and Fred’s romantic shenanigans offstage tangle with the onstage story of Kate and Petruchio.

Cole Porter’s dazzling score is shot through with wit, charm and Broadway energy; it includes Too Darn Hot, Brush Up Your Shakespeare, Another Op’nin’ , Another Show, So In Love Am I and Always True to You (In My Fashion).

Cole Porter’s musicals include Anything Goes and Can-Can.

Trevor Nunn has directed some of the most critically acclaimed and popular musical and Shakespearean productions in recent decades. His musical credits include Porgy and Bess, My Fair Lady, The Woman in White, Les Misérables, Starlight Express and Cats. Other theatre credits include Flare Path, Rock ‘n’ Roll, King Lear, Hamlet and Macbeth. His Chichester credits are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which transferred to the West End in 2011, and Cyrano de Bergerac.

Stephen Mear has choreographed She Loves Me (which he also directed), The Music Man, Funny Girl and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying for Chichester. His West End credits include Mary Poppins, Hello, Dolly! and Crazy for You.

Trevor Nunn and Stephen Mear worked together on the National Theatre’s 2002 production of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes which transferred for an extended run to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI by Bertolt Brecht

In a translation by George Tabori

29 June – 28 July, Minerva Theatre (Press Night: Wednesday 11 July 7.00pm)

Director: Jonathan Church

Designer: Simon Higlett

Lighting Designer: Tim Mitchell

Music: Matthew Scott

Chicago in the 1930s, the Great Depression – the perfect time for Arturo Ui and his mob of gangsters to run protection rackets for both workers and businesses. Soon Ui’s menacing shadow looms large across the entire city as he strives to seize absolute power.

Written in 1941 just before the exiled Bertolt Brecht arrived in the USA, this violent, epic parable of the rise of Hitler is one of his most accessible plays, shot through with razor-sharp humour.

Brecht’s work includes The Threepenny Opera (with Kurt Weill), The Life of Galileo, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Good Person of Szechuan and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Henry Goodman plays Arturo Ui, one of the richest and most demanding male characters in the contemporary dramatic canon. His credits include Festival 2010’s Yes, Prime Minister, Copenhagen, The Holy Rosenbergs, Duet for One, Fiddler on the Roof, Performances, The Gondoliers, Feelgood, The Merchant of Venice, Chicago and Richard III.

Jonathan Church is Chichester Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director. His credits for Chichester include Singin’ in the Rain which transferred to the West End in February, The Critic and The Real Inspector Hound, The Grapes of Wrath, Pravda, Hobson’s Choice, The Circle and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. His other credits include the Olivier Award-nominated Of Mice and Men.

HEARTBREAK HOUSE by Bernard Shaw

6 July – 25 August, Festival Theatre (Press Night: Thursday 12 July 7.00pm)

Director Richard Clifford

Designer: Stephen Brimson Lewis

Lighting Designer: Tim Mitchell

Music: Jason Carr

On the brink of World War I, Ellie Dunn, her father and her fiancée attend a house party at the home of eccentric Captain Shotover. The guests are soon divided by Ellie’s pragmatic decision to marry for money, not love. This witty exploration of morality, love and social mores features several strong and outspoken female characters and is regarded as one of Shaw’s major plays.

Bernard Shaw’s work includes Pygmalion, Mrs Warren’s Profession, Arms and the Man, Candida, You Never Can Tell, Man and Superman and Major Barbara.

Derek Jacobi plays Captain Shotover. Theatre and film includes King Lear, Twelfth Night, My Week with Marilyn, The King’s Speech and Gosford Park. Numerous credits at Chichester include Uncle Vanya, Playing the Wife, Hadrian VII, The Royal Hunt of the Sun and Saint Joan.

Richard Clifford directed Playing the Wife for Chichester in 1995. Other directing credits include The School for Scandal, The Game of Love and Chance and All’s Well That

Ends Well.

There will be a gala performance of Heartbreak House on Saturday 14 July to mark Chichester Festival Theatre’s 50^th anniversary.

SURPRISES by Alan Ayckbourn

8 August – 8 September

ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR by Alan Ayckbourn

10 August – 8 September

Minerva Theatre (Press Night: Monday 13 August 2.00pm & 7.00pm)

Director Alan Ayckbourn

Designer: Michael Holt

Lighting Designer: Jason Taylor

Surprises is a new comedy set in the future while its characters hearts remain tied to the past. When a stranger materialises in young Grace’s bedroom, is he really who he claims to be? Can there be everlasting love for Grace’s parents when death is postponed indefinitely? Has infallible lawyer Lorraine finally found her ideal partner, and can her lonely secretary Sylvia also meet Mr Right after years of unhappy affairs?

Absurd Person Singular is an award-winning classic comedy of three couples facing three catastrophic Christmases as their attempts at social climbing create an increasing spiral of accidents and emotional crises.

Surprises is Alan Ayckbourn’s 76^th play in a career spanning over 50 years, while Absurd Person Singular was first staged in 1972. Ayckbourn recently became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards and was knighted for services to theatre in 1997. His work includes Man of the Moment, A Chorus of Disapproval, Woman in Mind, A Small Family Business, The Norman Conquests, Absent Friends and Relatively Speaking.

Surprises and Absurd Person Singular are co-productions with the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

These two productions are part of the London 2012 Festival – a chance for everyone to celebrate London 2012 through dance, music, theatre, the visual arts, fashion, film and digital innovation across the UK.

Find out more at london2012.com/festival

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA by William Shakespeare

7 – 29 September, Festival Theatre (Press Night: Friday 14 September 7.00pm)

Director: Janet Suzman

Designer: Peter McKintosh

Lighting Designer: Paul Pyant

Music: Corin Buckeridge

Sound Designer: Sebastian Frost

Desire and duty collide in Shakespeare’s captivating tragedy of politics, power and passion in which two charismatic leaders, Mark Antony of Rome and Cleopatra, Queen of Eygpt, are caught in an all-encompassing love that threatens the Empire.

Kim Cattrall plays Cleopatra. Perhaps best known for her memorable performance in the hit TV series, Sex and the City, she has also established strong stage credentials with credits that include Wild Honey (her Broadway debut alongside Ian McKellen), Private Lives, The Cryptogram and Whose Life is it Anyway? Film includes Meet Monica Velour, The Ghost, and Sex and the City I and 2.

Michael Pennington is a leading Shakespearean actor whose credits include extensive work with the RSC, as well as his own English Shakespeare Company. His Chichester credits include The Syndicate, The Master Builder, Collaboration and Taking Sides. Other work includes The Iron Lady, Judgement Day and Love is My Sin.

Janet Suzman’s distinguished career as an actor and director includes her acclaimed performance in Antony and Cleopatra, as well as roles in Hedda Gabler and Dream of the Dog. Directing credits include the award-winning productions of the Johannesburg Othello, The Free State and Death of a Salesman.

Antony and Cleopatra is a co-production with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse.

Noël Coward’s PRIVATE LIVES

21 September – 27 October, Minerva Theatre (Press Night: Friday 28 September 7.00pm)

Director: Jonathan Kent

Designer: Anthony Ward

Lighting Designer: Mark Henderson

Sound Designer: Paul Groothuis

Amanda and Elyot, a rich and reckless divorced couple, meet five years after their marriage break-up – while on honeymoon with their new spouses. Passion reignited, they hurl themselves headlong into a relationship once more, without stopping to consider the consequences.

Widely considered to be his theatrical masterpiece, Private Lives fizzes with Noël Coward’s trademark wit and dramatic precision. His plays include Hay Fever, Design for Living, Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit. His screenwriting credits include In Which We Serve (which he also co-directed) and Brief Encounter.

Anna Chancellor plays Amanda. Her theatre credits include Festival 2011’s South Downs and The Browning Version, which transfer to the West End in April 2012, The Last of the Duchess (Hampstead Theatre), Creditors (Donmar Warehouse, BAM), and The Observer (National Theatre). Television and film credits include Pram Face, The Hour, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Pride and Prejudice.

Toby Stephens makes his debut at Chichester as Elyot, following in the illustrious footsteps of his parents, Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens, who both featured in several notable Festival Theatre productions. His theatre credits include Danton’s Death, The Real Thing, A Doll’s House and Coriolanus and on screen, Vexed, Jane Eyre and Die Another Day. More recently he has featured in Classic Chandler for BBC Radio 4.

Jonathan Kent has directed Sweeney Todd (which transfers to the West End’s Adelphi Theatre in March) and A Month in the Country for Chichester. Other recent credits include the National Theatre production of Oedipus starring Ralph Fiennes and The Fairy Queen at Glyndebourne. He was Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre for 12 years where his work included When We Dead Awaken, All For Love, Medea, The School For Wives and Gangster No. 1.

Chichester Festival Youth Theatre presents

NOAH

A new adaptation by Rachel Barnett

27 July – 11 August, Oaklands Park/Theatre on the Fly

Director Dale Rooks

Music/Musical Director: Jeff Moore

Chichester Festival Youth Theatre tells the story of Noah’s miraculous journey to the Ark in a fresh, colourful new adaptation full of original music, movement, masks and puppetry.

The first part of the performance will begin outside the Festival Theatre in Oaklands Park, before ticket holders will move to their seats in Theatre on the Fly.

Rachel Barnett’s work has been performed in the UK and internationally at venues including Hampstead Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre, Theatre Royal Bath and Lyric Theatre Hammersmith.

Dale Rooks is Director of Chichester Festival Youth Theatre. Her productions include The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, Peter Pan and Toad of Toad Hall.

Suitable for children aged six and upwards.

THEATRE ON THE FLY

As Chichester Festival Theatre looks back on 50 years of internationally renowned work, Festival 2012 will also look to the future by hosting a temporary new theatre for its next generation of theatre-makers. Since 2007, with the support of the Heller Foundation, Chichester Festival Theatre has trained three young directors. This summer, they will each present their debut Chichester productions in a temporary theatre commissioned, programmed and run by themselves.

Echoing the traditions of The Tent which preceded the Minerva Theatre, this temporary structure will also house an exciting mix of 50^th Anniversary play readings, films, revues, cabarets, concerts, workshops, Youth Theatre work and more.

Theatre on the Fly will be designed and built by Assemble, an award-winning young collective of architects who specialise in creating temporary arts structures from reclaimed and donated materials.

Full details of the Theatre on the Fly season will be announced in the Spring.

SPECIAL GUESTS FOR FESTIVAL 2012

David Suchet in a rehearsed reading of

BLACK COFFEE by Agatha Christie

Sunday 15 July, Minerva Theatre 3.00pm

Director: Joe Harmston

A unique opportunity to hear David Suchet as Poirot in a rehearsed reading of one of Agatha Christie’s rarely performed plays.

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Patricia Routledge in

FACING THE MUSIC: A LIFE IN MUSICAL THEATRE

Patricia Routledge in conversation with Edward Seckerson

Monday 30 & Tuesday 31 July, Wednesday 1 August, Minerva Theatre 7.45pm

A fascinating encounter in which Patricia Routledge recalls her considerable experience and success in musical theatre, both in this country and the United States of America.

There will also be 50 one-off events to mark Chichester Festival Theatre’s 50^th Anniversary, including pre- and post-show talks, Friday and Saturday shorts and workshops related to Festival 2012 productions. Full details are in the Festival brochure, pages 30 – 34, or online at cft.org.uk/events.

Priority booking for Friends of Chichester Festival Theatre opens on Monday 13 February for online and booking forms only. Telephone and in person bookings for Friends opens on Monday 20 February.

To become a Friend of the Theatre and benefit from priority booking and discounted tickets, please see cft.org.uk/friends, call the Friends Office on 01243 812913 or email julia.asher@cft.org.uk.

Online booking opens for everyone on Thursday 23 February. Telephone and counter booking opens for all on Monday 27 February.

Tickets £10 - £40, available online at cft.org.uk or contact the Box Office on 01243 781312.

Once again Chichester Festival Theatre is working in partnership with The University of Chichester to offer reduced price tickets for the first three performances of all productions in the Festival Theatre. To book for The University of Chichester Festival Theatre Previews, go to cft.org.uk or call the Box Office on 01243 781312.

Theatre at affordable prices is available through the Play Pass scheme, which gives those aged 16 – 25 the chance to buy tickets for just £7.50 for Previews and Press Nights on selected productions during Festival 2012. Terms and conditions apply. For more information and to join Play Pass, go to cft.org.uk/playpass or call the Box Office on 01243 781312.

CHICHESTER FESTIVAL THEATRE AT FIFTY

A NEW BOOK BY KATE MOSSE

To celebrate Chichester Festival Theatre‘s 50^th Anniversary, international best-selling author, playwright, broadcaster and Chichester resident, Kate Mosse has written Chichester Festival Theatre at Fifty. A love letter to the Theatre, drawing on in-depth interviews with many of the key men and women in its history – actors, directors, critics, board members, supporters, backstage staff – who have made Chichester Festival Theatre what it is today.

Price £28. Pre-order before 30 April at the special price of £25 from unbound.co.uk or call the Box Office on 01243 781312.

RENEW

Built on a budget, The Festival Theatre building is now operating on a scale way beyond what was envisaged when it opened and urgently needs a 21^st Century upgrade.

In December 2011, the Theatre’s redevelopment plans received unanimous approval from Chichester District Council for planning permission and listed building consent.

The RENEW project will cost about £22 million. West Sussex County Council and Chichester District Council have jointly pledged £2 million to the project, subject to a successful outcome of an application to the new Arts Council England capital funding programme. It is planned to launch a major fundraising campaign in April 2012 to safeguard the future of this Grade II * listed building, and maintain its positive regional economic impact, for many decades to come.

Festival 2012 Sponsors:

Uncle Vanya is sponsored by Kenwood

The Way of the World is sponsored by Bramshott Place, Durrants Village and

Vintage TV

A Marvellous Year for Plums is sponsored by Reynolds Fine Furniture

Canvas is sponsored by Pridewatch Events, Chicheser Canvas and Graylingwell Park

Kiss Me, Kate is sponsored by Henry Adams, Oval Insurance Broking, Seaward Properties and John Wiley & Sons

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui is sponsored by Hentys Corporate

Heartbreak House is sponsored by Thomas Eggar

Surprises and Absurd Person Singular are sponsored by Baker Tilly and Oldham Seals Group

Antony and Cleopatra are sponsored by Jackson-Stops & Staff and Lockheed Martin

Private Lives is sponsored by Harwoods

Noah is sponsored by Criterion Ices, Mercer and Pall Corporation

WATERMILL THEATRE

Bagnor,

Nr. Newbury,

Berkshire

RG20 8AE

BOX OFFICE: 01635 46044 or

online at www.watermill.org.uk

LETTICE AND LOVAGE

by Peter Shaffer

directed by Matthew Lloyd, designed by Andrew D Edwards

Thursday 16 February – Saturday 24 March

LETTICE AND LOVAGE, Shaffer’s award-winning comedy, is The Watermill’s first theatre production of 2012. The play, one of Shaffer’s stable of international successes, which include EQUUS and AMADEUS, is a highly intelligent, delightfully funny and deeply moving story of two totally disparate women, who become the best of friends.

Lettice, is a stately home tour guide, given to excessive and exciting flights of imagination, making dull history sparkle and Lotte is the fact obsessed bureaucrat who sacks her for inventing history. They meet again only to discover a mutual hatred of modern English architecture, which unites them in a most unexpected manner.

The cast: Selina Cadell (Lettice Douffet) has a distinguished career in theatre on both sides of the Atlantic. She has worked extensively at the National Theatre and has been seen on television in shows as varied as DOC MARTIN and THE CATHERINE TATE SHOW; Helen Mallon (Miss Framer) has appeared in several shows for The National Theatre of Scotland; Michael Thomas (Mr Bardolph) has worked with Sam Mendes on the Bridge Project and also many times for the RSC and National Theatre; Jessica Turner (Lotte Schoen) also has many National Theatre productions to her credit and most recently appeared in Salisbury Playhouse’s PERSUASION.

The play is directed by Matthew Lloyd who makes his debut at The Watermill. His previous work includes the hit Almeida production of DUET FOR ONE starring Juliet Stevenson, transferred to the West End, the premiere of THE GOOD SOLDIER by Julian Mitchell at Bath Theatre Royal and most recently THE FLEET STREET NATIVITY which played to record-breaking box office figures at Hull Truck Theatre.

He said “I am delighted to be directing this revival of a quintessentially English comedy at the Watermill. It is a perfect intimate space for a play that offers brilliant actors the chance to revel in characters that are undaunted, unpredictable, hilarious and deeply felt. I am looking forward to working with Selina Cadell and Jessica Turner who are playing two of the greatest roles in contemporary theatre.’

NOTES TO EDITORS

Press Performance: Monday 20 February at 7.30pm

Venue: The Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, Newbury, RG20 8AE

Dates: Thursday 16 February to Saturday 24 March 2012

Tues – Fri Eves 7.30pm, Thu & Sat mats 2.30pm except 24 March when 1.30pm & 6.30pm

Tickets: £14.50 - £26, under 25s £10 Monday – Thursday.

Box Office: 01635 46044 or online www.watermill.org.uk

DIRECTIONS TO THE WATERMILL FROM THE M4

Leave Motorway at Junction 13 and head south on the A34 towards Newbury. Take first exit off A34, signposted to Donnington, then turn right to cross over the dual carriageway. Turn left following signs to Donnington, straight over first mini roundabout. Turn right at second mini roundabout into Grove Road. Follow Grove Road for approximately ½ a mile and then turn right following signs to the Watermill Theatre and Bagnor. Pass through the village of Bagnor and fork left down small drive leading to Theatre car park.

*******************************

This Theatre is probably the most unusually beautifully situated theatre in the country. Winter, Spring, Summer or Autumn - the setting is delightful. The Watermill has full facilities for car parking, a first-class restaurant and bar and the most delightful little Theatre producing excellent shows. I can heartily recommend a visit to the WATERMILL !!!! (Editor).

THEATRE ROYAL

BRIGHTON

New Road,

Brighton

Sussex

Box Office 08448 717 650 (bkg fee)

Groups Hotline 08448 717 617

Access Bookings 08448 717 677 (bkg fee)

Website: www.ambassadortickets.com/brighton

The Theatre Royal, Brighton is one of the most elegant of playhouses. Whilst so many of our old theatre have ripped out wooden panels in favour of Formica and replaced chandeliers with florescent lighting, the Theatre Royal skillfully manages to retain its charm and character whilst presenting an eclectic programme of drama, dance, musicals and comedy. Perfectly situated in the heart of Brighton, opposite the Prince Regent's Royal Pavilion, it is also wonderfully convenient for late night trains (thus easily accessible from London), an array of good restaurants and, if you desire, a thoughtful late night stroll along the beach to savour the evening's theatre fare.

Brighton Theatre Royal has many concessions, family tickets and special offers - why not join their mailing list and reap those rewards - contact the Box Office 08700 606 650 for full details.

NEW VICTORIA THEATRE

WOKING

The Ambassadors

Peacocks Centre,

Woking

Surrey, GU21 1GQ

BOX OFFICE 01483 761144

Website: www.theambassadors.com/woking

The New Victoria Theatre is within easy reach of most of Surrey and Exit 11 of the M25. The main line railway connection with Waterloo takes less than half an hour.

SALISBURY PLAYHOUSE

Malthouse Lane

Salisbury

Wiltshire

SP2 7RA

BOX OFFICE: 01722 320 333

Website: www.salisburyplayhouse.com

THE MAYFLOWER THEATRE

SOUTHAMPTON

Commercial Road

Southampton

SO15 1GE

BOX OFFICE: 02380 711811

Website: www.the-mayflower.com

BRISTOL - OLD VIC

King Street

Bristol

BS1 4ED

BOX OFFICE 0117 987 7877

www.bristol-old-vic.co.uk

THEATRE ROYAL

BRISTOL

BRISTOL HIPPODROME

St Augustine's Parade

Bristol

Avon

BS1 4UZ

BOX OFFICE: 0870 6077500

Website: www.bristol-hippodrome.co.uk

TOBACCO FACTORY

Raleigh Road

Southville

Bristol

BS3 1TF

BOX OFFICE: 0117-902-0344

www.tobaccofactory.com

EVERYMAN THEATRE

Regent Street

Cheltenham

Gloucestershire

BOX OFFICE: 01242 572573

www.everymantheatre.org.uk

THEATRE ROYAL

BURY ST EDMUNDS

Westgate Street,

Bury St Edmunds.

Suffolk

IP33 1QR

BOX OFFICE: 01284 76905

Website: www.theatreroyal.org

YVONNE ARNAUD THEATRE

Millbrook

Guildford

Surrey

GU1 9UX

BOX OFFICE: (01483) 44 00 00

Website: www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk

THEATRE ROYAL

WINDSOR

Thames Street

Windsor

Berkshire

SL4 1PS

BOX OFFICE: (01753) 85 38 88

Website: www.theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk

THEATRE ROYAL

Royal Parade,

Plymouth

Devon

PL1 2TR

BOX OFFICE: 01752 267222

Group Sales 01752 260960 / Minicom booking (for hard of hearing) 01752 600290

website: www.theatreroyal.com

THE DRUM (STUDIO THEATRE)

EXETER NORTHCOTT THEATRE

Stocker Road,

Exeter

EX4 4QB

BOX OFFICE: 01392 493493

Email info@exeternorthcott.co.uk / www.exeternorthcott.co.uk

THEATRE ROYAL

Sawclose,

Bath

BOX OFFICE: 01225 448844

www.theatreroyal.org.uk

2012 AT THEATRE ROYAL BATH

USTINOV STUDIO SPRING SEASON, 1 MARCH – 9 JUNE /

MAIN THEATRE SUMMER SEASON, 5 JULY – 8 SEPTEMBER

USTINOV STUDIO AMERICAN SEASON

Following autumn’s acclaimed season of work at the Ustinov Studio in Bath, we are pleased to announce artistic director, Laurence Boswell’s spring 2012 American season or work - Red Light Winter by Adam Rapp, Howard Korder’s In A Garden and In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) by Sarah Ruhl, all UK premieres.

RED LIGHT WINTER (UK premiere) by Adam Rapp

Director Richard Beecham; Designer Simon Kenny

Thursday 1 - Saturday 31 March

Winner of a 2006 Obie Award, and nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, Red Light Winter is a compelling, poetic, erotic and unforgettable piece of theatre.

Two thirty-something New Yorkers, Matt and Davis, once college room mates, go to Amsterdam to rekindle their friendship and get away from their lives. They find themselves thrown into a bizarre love triangle with a beautiful young prostitute named Christina. But the romance they find in Europe is eventually overshadowed by the truth they discover back home, the consequences of which will alter their lives forever.

Adam Rapp is emerging as one of the most promising and important voices in contemporary American theatre. Red Light Winter was originally produced by Chicago’s legendary Steppenwolf Theater, followed by a successful Off-Broadway run.

Contains scenes of an adult nature

“Rapp’s dialogue is at once hilariously funny, scathingly edgy and vividly real” New York Post

“Riveting…oozes sexual intrigue and tension…a Gen X-friendly jaw-dropper” Variety

Press Night: Wednesday 7 March, 7pm

IN A GARDEN (UK premiere) by Howard Korder

Director Richard Beecham; Designer Simon Kenny

Wednesday 4 April – Saturday 5 May

It is 1989. An ambitious young American architect is summoned to a fictitious Middle Eastern country, where the Minister of Culture commissions him to build a structure which will remind him of his most idyllic childhood memory, the garden of his father. Dream turns to nightmare as months turn into years, a cat and mouse game ensues and the architect’s attempts to fulfil the brief are constantly rejected. In this veiled and dangerous world in which neither side is capable of understanding the other, the only outcome is catastrophe.

Playwright and screen writer Howard Korder is the winner of numerous awards including an Obie for The Lights, which played at the Royal Court in 1996. He received a Pulitzer-Prize nomination in 1988 for his play Boys’ Life and in 1996 a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting.

“Scenes alternately cascade with laughter and seethe with dread…never less than thoughtful and involving” Variety

Press Night: Wednesday 11 April, 7pm

IN THE NEXT ROOM (or The Vibrator Play) (UK premiere) by Sarah Ruhl

Director Laurence Boswell; Designer Simon Kenny

Thursday 10 May – Saturday 9 June

In a spa town in New York in the late 19^th century enthusiasm for the new electric light bulb is spreading through the homes of the well-to-do citizens. Young Dr Givings is obsessed with the marvels of technology and has been working with a handy new device, a strange electric powered box set up in his operating theatre to treat female hysteria. Dr Givings’s first patient emerges from her first session beaming and keen to return for further treatment. But while the good doctor is blithely administering to his patients, his wife, Catherine, a new mother, is left feeling lonely and left out and forced to take matters into her own hands.

Based in historical fact, In The Next Room is a provocative, funny, touching and entertaining story about sex, intimacy and equality, originally nominated for three 2010 Tony Awards including Best Play.

Contains scenes of an adult nature

“Has the potential to be a modern masterpiece…” LA Times

Press Night: Wednesday 16 May, 7pm

LISTINGS INFORMATION:

Venue: Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath, Sawclose, Bath BA1 1ET

Dates: 1 March – 9 June 2012

Times: Evening performances (except press nights), 7.45pm; Saturday matinees, 2.30pm & Thursday matinees, 2.30pm (12^th, 19^th, 26^th April; 3^rd, 17^th, 24^th, 31^st May (not 10^th May); and 7^th June

Box Office: 01225 448844/ www.theatreroyal.org.uk/ustinov

Tickets: £19.50 / £14.50 discounts

MAIN HOUSE SUMMER SEASON

After eight wonderful seasons – and more than thirty productions, including several transfers to the West End and New York – the Theatre Royal Bath and Peter Hall have agreed that his Company’s stellar 2011 season at the Theatre Royal will be the last. Sir Peter said:

“After eight years we felt the time was right, both for the company and for the Theatre Royal. As for me, directing Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays made the perfect ending to our work here. It has been an exceptional collaboration for which I thank Danny Moar, everyone at the Theatre Royal and our very supportive Bath audience”.

Danny Moar, Director of the Theatre Royal Bath and Producer of the Peter Hall Company seasons at the Theatre Royal Bath said:

“Everyone at the Theatre Royal Bath and our audiences owe Peter a huge debt of gratitude. It has been a great privilege to work with a giant of the British theatre on several landmark productions and to see these productions have a future life beyond Bath, around the country, in the West End and New York”.

For summer 2012, the Theatre Royal will offer three classic plays spanning the centuries, directed by three leading directors: Sheridan's The School for Scandal, directed by Jamie Lloyd; Terry Johnson's Hysteria, directed by Terry Johnson himself, starring Antony Sher; and Shakespeare's The Tempest, directed by Adrian Noble.

THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL (1777) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Thursday 5 July - Saturday 21 July

Director Jamie Lloyd; Designer Soutra Gilmour

“Wonderfully funny… one of the great glories of British comic writing” Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph

Sparkling wit, verbal brilliance and intricate plots make Sheridan’s glorious comedy as sharp and funny today as in the 18^th century.

The School For Scandal is a romp through the lives and loves of the upper classes in the fashionable society of 18th century London. Sir Peter Teazle has married a young country girl in the hope that she will be too innocent to cause him any bother, but his aims are thwarted when she takes up with the most outrageous set of scandalmongers in town; Lady Sneerwell, Mrs Candour and Sir Benjamin Backbite thrive on making mayhem from malicious tittle-tattle.

Add into the equation the notorious playboy Charles Surface, his brother Joseph, an apparently honourable gentleman, Sir Peter’s ward, the gossip-loathing Maria with whom both brothers are in love, and an array of servants both upright and downright wicked. This classic English comedy of manners relishes every opportunity to poke fun at the society in which it is set.

Jamie Lloyd is currently an Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse where he recently directed Passion, which won the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical and the current much acclaimed production of Inadmissable Evidence. His next project is She Stoops to Conquer at the National Theatre.

Press Night: Tuesday, 10 July, 7.30pm

HYSTERIA (1993) starring Antony Sher

Written and directed by Terry Johnson

Thursday 26 July - Saturday 18 August

In 1939, 82-year-old Sigmund Freud, who has fled from Nazi-occupied Austria, settles down in a quiet Hampstead suburb where he aims to spend his dying days in peace. When surrealist painter Salvador Dali unexpectedly turns up in his study, along with a young woman who finds it impossible to keep her clothes on, all hell breaks loose.

This dazzling comedy is part broad farce, part case-history and brings together two of the world’s greatest and most eccentric minds. Hysteria won the 1994 Evening Standard award for best comedy and the 1994 Writers' Guild award for best play in the West End.

Antony Sher is a leading actor of his generation, an Olivier Award winner for his performances in the RSC’s Richard III and Stanley for the National Theatre. Other stage work includes Othello, Macbeth, Torch Song Trilogy and, recently, Broken Glass in the West End. His films include Mrs Brown and on television The Shadow Line, The History Man and The Jury.

Terry Johnson’s many productions as director and/or writer include Insignificance, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Hitchcock Blonde, Entertaining Mr Sloane, The Graduate and Dead Funny in the West End and Not Only But Always for Channel 4. He won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical for La Cage aux Folles.

“Uniting flurries of brilliantly sustained farce with intellectual slapstick” Independent

Press Night: Thursday, 2 August, 8pm

THE TEMPEST by William Shakespeare

Directed by Adrian Noble

Thursday 23 August - Saturday 8 September

Romance, magic and a deserted island – Shakespeare's lyrical final work pits the desire for revenge against the power of love. Marooned on a distant island with his daughter Miranda, Prospero has spent twelve years perfecting his magic. When he learns that a ship bearing his old enemies is sailing near the island, he conjures up a torrential storm with the help of the spirit Ariel, bringing within his grasp those who robbed him of his dukedom. An enchanted tale filled with humour, romance and adventure, The Tempest is ultimately a story of redemption and forgiveness.

Adrian Noble was the director of the 2011 Shakespeare Festival at the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, California where an open-air version of this production received rave reviews. As the Artistic Director of the RSC from 1990 – 2003, his directing credits included much acclaimed productions of Antony and Cleopatra with Michael Gambon and Helen Mirren; Hamlet and Henry V with Kenneth Branagh and Macbeth with Jonathan Pryce. His hit West End musicals include Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Secret Garden and he will also be directing The King’s Speech in the West End and on Broadway in Spring 2012.

“Thrillingly theatrical” Sunday Express

Press Night: Tuesday, 28 August, 7.30pm

Venue: Theatre Royal Bath, Sawclose, Bath BA1 1ET

Times: Monday – Wednesday, 7.30pm; Thursday – Saturday, 8pm; Wed and Sat matinees 2.30pm (not on first Saturday of each production)

Dates: Thursday 5 July – Saturday 9 September

Box Office: 01225 448844

Tickets: £17.50 - £33.50

THE HAWTH

Hawth Avenue

Crawley

RH10 6YZ

BOX OFFICE: 01293 553636

Website - www.hawth.co.uk

The Hawth is a very attractive, modern theatre - opened in 1988 - on a 30 acre wooded site and with abundant free parking. The Theatre seats 855 on well raked seating affording a full view of the stage from any angle.

Also many exciting shows in the adjacent studio….apply to the Box Office for details.

THE MILL AT SONNING THEATRE

Sonning Eye

Oxfordshire

BOX OFFICE: 01189 698000

Website: www.millatsonning.com

www.millatsonning.com

For more details or individual advice/help - email: GPowner@aol.com