It took me a little while to become used to the characters-Michael Caine and Julie Walters were so intrenched in my mind-and no, it’s nothing to do with the fact that they are black. No ordinary submissive student, she has firm opinions of her own and is not afraid to voice them. Lenny Henry’s Frank is the drink-sodden professor that Rita chooses for her Open University course and if anyone can shake him up a bit and give him a new perspective on life then she can. Both Shirley and Rita do something about it. There comes a time when you either follow your dream or you give in and accept the status quo. Willy Russell really gets into the minds and feelings of women (well he used once to be a hairdresser where all secrets are revealed) and knows that, like Shirley Valentine, we all have our dreams. Rita, though, wants to learn ‘everything’, to be an educated woman and have a choice in her life instead of being dictated to by others. This is Lashana Lynch’s Rita, aged twenty-six and married to a man who wants nothing more for her than to have a baby and settle down to a humdrum life with no prospects for change or self-improvement. Because that is when you've got to decide whether it's gonna be another change of dress or a change in yourself." It's preceded by another major musical a new stage version of A Damsel in Distress (30 May-27 June), based on a novel by PG Wodehouse with songs by George and Ira Gershwin, directed by Rob Ashford.Īnd a promenade production of Michael Morpurgo's Running Wild will be staged from 2 to 16 August by Chichester Festival Youth Theatre at the Cass Sculpture Foundation.Īrtistic director Jonathan Church said today: "It is wonderful to present our first full season since the reopening of the Festival Theatre last year, and the tenth since Alan and I began work at Chichester… It features a particularly impressive calibre of directors, and embraces both the old and the new."Is this it? Is this the absolute maximum that I can expect from this livin' lark? And that's the really big moment that is. It's followed in the Minerva by productions of For Services Rendered (31 July-5 September) by W Somerset Maugham, directed by Howard Davies, and Frank McGuinness's award-winning Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, directed by Michael Attenborough and starring David Haig.Īs previously announced, Mack and Mabel starring Michael Ball will run in the refurbished Festival Theatre from 13 July to 5 September. Opening the season in the Minerva is Jeremy Sams's "sumptuous" revival of Jean Anouilh's The Rehearsal (8 May-6 June). Michael Ball at the 2013 WhatsOnStage Awards, where he won for Sweeney Todd The nautical comedy, which is directed by Nadia Fall and runs from 23 April to 16 May, features Sarah Parish making her Chichester debut. The Chichester 2015 season opens with the transformation of the Festival Theatre stage into a river, complete with "life-size boat", for a revival of Alan Ayckbourn's Way Upstream. "Chekhov essentially created contemporary theatre, and in these three plays you see the arrival of his genius," Hare said of the trilogy, which runs in the Festival Theatre from 28 September to 14 November. Directed by Jonathan Kent, the ensemble cast will feature Anna Chancellor, James McArdle and Samuel West. "It means a great deal to me personally and professionally to be in Willy Russell's classic play about the ways in which education can change your life."Īlso announced by Chichester today is a repertory season of Chekhov's early plays Platonov, Ivanov and The Seagull, all in new versions by David Hare. Henry said: "When I began studying for an Open University degree, it was a pivotal period that opened my mind to the delights of Shakespeare and so much more. The production, which runs in the Minerva Theatre from 18 June to 25 July 2015, will be directed by Michael Buffong and marks Henry's Chichester debut. Lenny Henry will star in a revival of Educating Rita at Chichester later this year, as part of the venue's newly announced season. Lenny Henry as Troy Maxson in Fences, which ran in the West End (2013)
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