Chichester Festival Theatre: A Visitor Guide

The Chichester Festival Theatre is one of the most significant theatre buildings in Britain, both architecturally and in terms of its contribution to British stage history. Since it opened in 1962, it has produced work that has shaped the national conversation about theatre and sent productions on to the West End, Broadway and beyond. For anyone interested in theatre outside London, a visit to Chichester is well worth the journey from the capital. Chichester Festival Theatre sits in Oaklands Park on the edge of the cathedral city of Chichester in West Sussex, approximately seventy miles south of London. The building was designed by the architectural practice Powell & Moya and opened in 1962 as one of the first purpose-built open-stage theatres in Britain. Its distinctive hexagonal structure, with a thrust stage projecting into the auditorium, was designed to bring audiences closer to the action and to create a different relationship between performance and spectator than the traditional proscenium arch theatre allows. The main house seats approximately 1,400 people. The thrust stage means that audience members sit on three sides of the performance space, which produces a different experience from watching a production at a conventional West End theatre. There are no seats with a fully frontal view of the stage; instead, every seat in the house has a particular angle on the action, and the staging is designed to work across all of them. The theatre was founded largely through the efforts of Leslie Evershed-Martin, a Chichester solicitor who spent years campaigning and fundraising for a major regional theatre in the city. Its first artistic director, appointed in 1962, was Laurence Olivier, who used the theatre's inaugural seasons to develop work and ideas that would later feed into the early years of the National Theatre, which he also led. That association with the founding of British theatre as a serious institutional enterprise has shaped the Chichester Festival Theatre's identity ever since. It operates as a producing house, creating its own productions from scratch rather than receiving touring shows, and many of its productions have gone on to further life in London and elsewhere. Over the decades, the list of directors, writers and performers who have worked at Chichester reads as a significant part of the history of British theatre. Productions from Chichester have transferred to the West End on many occasions, with receiving houses including the Sondheim Theatre among others. The relationship between Chichester's producing culture and the London commercial mainstream is a defining feature of how British theatre develops its most ambitious work. The Chichester Festival Theatre complex includes the Minerva Theatre, a studio space that opened in 1989 and seats approximately 285 people. The Minerva operates as an intimate counterpart to the main house, with its own programme of productions that tends towards more experimental or less commercially driven work than the main stage. It has a flexible staging arrangement and has produced some of the most admired smaller-scale work associated with the Chichester name. For visitors, the Minerva is worth considering alongside the main house if timing allows. Productions there are often more tightly focused and can offer a very different kind of theatrical experience from the sweep of the main stage programme. Chichester is well connected to London by rail. South Western Railway and Southern trains run from London Victoria and London Bridge to Chichester, with journey times of approximately one hour thirty minutes to one hour forty-five minutes depending on the service and connections. The station at Chichester is in the town centre, roughly a fifteen-to-twenty-minute walk from the theatre, or a short taxi journey. For those driving from London, the journey typically takes between one hour thirty minutes and two hours depending on traffic and the route via the A3 or M23/A27. Chichester itself is a compact and attractive city with a medieval street plan, a Norman cathedral and good restaurants within easy reach of the theatre. Many visitors combine a theatre trip with time spent in the city, particularly given that Chichester has a good dining scene and the surrounding West Sussex countryside is accessible by car. Chichester Festival Theatre operates an annual Festival season that typically runs from spring through to autumn, with a range of productions across the main house and the Minerva. The exact season schedule varies year to year. Outside the main festival period, the theatre also runs a more limited programme and is occasionally used for special events or visiting productions. Booking well in advance is advisable for the most popular productions, particularly in the summer when demand from London visitors and the local audience both peak. Check the theatre's own website for the current season programme and booking. For those planning to see a production at Chichester and also considering a West End trip around the same time, BritishTheatre.com is a useful reference for what is currently playing in London. Shows like Les Misérables and Hamilton represent the kind of large-scale producing ambition that Chichester has also pursued on its main stage over the decades. For London ticket availability around a Chichester visit, tickadoo covers the full West End programme. How do I get to Chichester Festival Theatre from London? Take a train from London Victoria or London Bridge to Chichester station. Journey time is approximately one hour thirty minutes. The theatre is roughly a fifteen-to-twenty-minute walk from the station, or a short taxi ride. What makes Chichester Festival Theatre different from a West End theatre? The main house has a thrust stage, which means the audience sits on three sides of the performance space rather than facing it from the front. This produces a different relationship between audience and performers, and the staging of every production is designed to work across all angles. It is one of the oldest purpose-built open-stage theatres in Britain. Does Chichester Festival Theatre send productions to the West End? Yes. Productions originating at Chichester have transferred to West End theatres on multiple occasions. The theatre is one of the producing houses with a track record of developing work that resonates beyond its original context. Is there more than one stage at Chichester Festival Theatre? Yes. The main house (approximately 1,400 seats) has the distinctive thrust stage. The Minerva Theatre, which opened in 1989, is a studio space seating approximately 285 people and runs its own programme of smaller-scale productions. Do I need to book tickets for Chichester Festival Theatre in advance? For popular productions in the main Festival season, booking well in advance is strongly recommended. For less-demanded performances or later in the season, tickets may be available closer to the date. Check the theatre's own website directly for availability. For West End shows, tickadoo handles booking for London productions.