The Caretaker Digital Programme | CFT Festival 2024

The Caretaker

By Harold Pinter

Welcome

Welcome

Welcome to this performance of The Caretaker.

This is a notable production for several reasons. Firstly, it marks Justin’s own directorial debut as Artistic Director of CFT during a Festival season. Secondly, it’s only the second full-length play

by Harold Pinter to have been produced at Chichester: a remarkable fact, given his extraordinary contribution to, and influence on, 20th century drama. (The first – bonus point if you knew it instantly! – was The Hothouse in 1995, in which Pinter himself appeared.)

In addition, The Caretaker brings the great Ian McDiarmid back to our stages after an interval of 15 years. We are delighted that he has returned to play Davies, alongside Adam Gillen (as Aston) and Jack Riddiford (as Mick), both of whom are making their Chichester debuts.

So why has Justin chosen this play for his debut production?

‘When programming the Festival season, I wanted to celebrate the two different spaces at CFT in a meaningful way. The Festival Theatre is a space for big spectacle, big ideas and public discussion where the audience should feel a part of the conversation. In the Minerva, we’re leaning into the intimacy, claustrophobia and tension of the space. It should feel like you’re in a room you’re not supposed to be in.

‘The themes of the outsider and Englishness run through the whole season. The Caretaker is about three outsiders who are brought to life in vivid three-dimensions. It’s a play that exploded the possibilities of what, and who, could be on the stage. These are three characters who are all from the margins of society, with complex inner lives and emotions.’

The Caretaker premiered in 1960 – coincidentally the same year that Lionel Bart’s Oliver! opened: contrasting works which both centre around lives on the fringes of English society, created by writers of Jewish heritage from the East End of London.

It’s unexpected serendipities like this which help make a Festival season so stimulating. We hope that you’ll enjoy this performance and to see you again soon.

Justin Audibert Artistic Director

Kathy Bourne Executive Director

Kathy Bourne and Justin Audibert Photograph by Peter Flude

Consider yourself one of us!

Oliver!

Festival Theatre 8 July – 7 September What would a Festival season be without a magnificent musical as its centrepiece? Matthew Bourne, who’s internationally renowned for his ground-breaking reinventions of dance classics such as Swan Lake and Edward Scissorhands, as well as his Olivier Award-winning choreography for My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins, is making his Chichester debut as both director and choreographer of Lionel Bart’s unforgettable Oliver!

We’re once again collaborating with producer extraordinaire Cameron Mackintosh, with whom we last worked on Half a Sixpence, who has a six decade-long love of this iconic musical, and longstanding friendships and collaborations with both Lionel Bart and Matthew Bourne.

He and Matthew have been inspired to go back to the more intimate ensemble roots of the original production and create a brand new reimagining of Bart’s masterpiece. Cameron tells us: ‘I was taken to see Oliver! for the first time as a 13-year-old schoolboy, shortly after it opened in June 1960; Lionel’s glorious songs blew me away and the show changed the British musical for ever.

‘We very much hope that audiences will be coming back for more all over again!’

To promise nearly fifty million people truly universal health care – ‘cradle to the grave’ – is crackers.

The Promise Minerva Theatre 19 July – 17 August Following The Caretaker into the Minerva Theatre is our third world premiere of the season: Paul Unwin’s new play The Promise.

The NHS is never far from the headlines so, in an election year, it’s worth remembering that we haven’t always been lucky enough to have it.

Directed by Jonathan Kent, The Promise evokes the dramatic political struggle to establish this revolutionary service.

CFT Artistic Director Justin Audibert says: ‘Set in post-war Britain, the play features many of the true titans of the Labour movement, from Ernest Bevin and Aneurin Bevan, to Stafford Cripps, Clement Atlee and Herbert Morrison.

But it really centres around Ellen Wilkinson, who was a radical outsider (chiming with one of the themes of this season) and how she galvanised that Cabinet, alongside Nye Bevan, to create something so hopeful.

‘You’ll feel like a fly on the wall, watching these brilliant personalities as their emotional lives get tangled up in arguments and compromises to create this integral part of our society.’

Technically Speaking With every show, the spotlight falls inevitably on the performers on stage. But have you ever wondered who is operating the lighting and sound effects; who sewed the costumes, sourced the props and made sure all the elements came together as a seamless whole?

Running alongside Chichester Festival Youth Theatre groups focusing on drama, dance and musical theatre, the Technical Youth Theatre offers a chance to explore all the practical, technical and creative elements that go into putting on productions.

It’s led by Sally Garner-Gibbons, CFT’s Apprenticeship Co-ordinator. ‘I’ve been working with the Youth Theatre since 1998, and we always had a little army of backstage cadets – in fact Graham Taylor, now CFT’s

Head of Lighting, was one of those people,’ says Sally.

‘We try to give everyone a taste of the minutiae of what it means to work backstage. We do a lot of making and designing – prop and costume making, masks and puppetry. We look at lighting and sound, and stage management techniques such as scale measuring and how to cue a sequence. We have visiting lecturers and the CFT staff are incredibly generous with their time and expertise.’

The most exciting aspect for most participants is the chance to work on the CFYT productions alongside the professional technical and stage management teams.

‘Everything we’ve covered in the Youth Theatre sessions suddenly comes to life,’

Above: Sally Garner-Gibbons and Technical Youth Theatre members with lighting designer Ryan Day. Opposite: Jack Ratcliffe, a Technical Youth Theatre member.

says Sally. ‘We’ve been so fortunate with the Deputy Stage Managers [who call the actors’ and technical cues during a performance] and Assistant Stage Managers [generally responsible for all the props used on a show] because they’ve been so open to having young trainees around. As far as I’m aware, it’s the longest established Technical Youth Theatre in the country.’

The experience can open the door to career possibilities of which young people were previously unaware. ‘Often they don’t know anything about stage management when they’re young,’ Sally explains.

‘Matthew Hoy, who was one of our very early intake, came because he couldn’t find an after school club for photography; he did two sessions on stage management and realised he loved it. He’s now Deputy Company Manager on Les Misérables. Joe Jenner is an ex Tech YT Student who then studied Stage Management at GSA and has returned to CFT as our Production Manager Apprentice.

‘Georgia Dacey has since worked at the RSC and The Old Vic and is returning to CFT as ASM for this year’s Christmas show, Cinderella. Hannah Lipton was Company Stage Manager on Truth & Tails, CFT’s show for families and schools in 2023 and has been appointed ASM for The Caretaker and Hey! Christmas Tree. Henry Reeder went on to Northbrook College to study Production Arts and has just been appointed as ASM Dep for Oliver!; in 2023, he also won the John Hyland Award for his outstanding contribution to the work of CFT. Following his professional training, Sammy Lacey has just finished a UK tour of The Full Monty as ASM.’ But whether or not you decide to make theatre your career, Sally is clear that any young person will get a lot out of the experience.

‘The wonderful thing about the Tech Youth Theatre is that it becomes a skillssharing opportunity. I see the progression in all the participants: having done two Christmas or Summer shows, the young people then mentor the new intake.

And because people tend to join with people they’ve never met before, they have to forge relationships outside their tight little school group. It builds their confidence and communication skills.

‘I try really hard to ignite the flame that I had ignited in me, all those years ago, about how wonderful it is to be backstage. Theatre is not just about what happens on stage or front of house, it’s about all the magic that we make happen.’

Technical Youth Theatre sessions run one evening a week during term-time at CFT. Anyone in Year 10+ can apply; no experience is necessary. For more information please email cfyt@cft.org.uk; the next intake for members will be September 2024.

With thanks to Liz Juniper for supporting the Technical Youth Theatre and all of our LEAP supporters

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The Caretaker

By Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter Photo by Martin Rosenbaum

A pause on the stairs No doubt about it: The Caretaker was the play that dramatically changed the life of Harold Pinter. After the dismal failure of The Birthday Party, it was a rip-roaring success: opening at the Arts Theatre in April 1960, it moved into the West End and ran for 444 performances. It earned Pinter his first real money, enabling him to buy a home in Brighton for his ageing parents.

A play that has acquired mythic status had seemingly mundane origins.

The play itself was picked up by every major European theatre and has since been produced all over the world. Bookshelves groan with the amount of critical commentary it has yielded. Yet a play that has acquired mythic status had seemingly mundane origins.

I discovered this when I wrote a biography of Pinter 30 years ago and, for the first time, he revealed how the play came into being. He and his first wife, Vivien Merchant, were living in a modest two-room flat in the Chiswick High Road. ‘There was a chap’ said Pinter, ‘who owned the house: a builder in fact, like Mick, who had his own van and whom I hardly ever saw… His brother lived in the house. He was a handyman… He managed rather more successfully than Aston, but he was very introverted, very secretive and had had some kind of electric shock treatment... Anyway, he did bring a tramp back one night. I call him a tramp, but he was just a homeless old man who stayed three or four weeks... I never invited him in for a cup of tea but I occasionally got glimpses of him in the other fellow’s room... The image that stayed with me for a long time was of the open door in this room with the two men standing in different parts of the room doing different things... The tramp rooting around in a bag and the other man looking out of the window and simply not speaking...

A kind of moment frozen in time that left a very strong impression’.

I quote this at length because it tells us a lot about Pinter’s working method and arguably about the nature of drama.

Researching Pinter’s life, I was fascinated to find how often his plays were sparked by the memory of a particular moment or image. His first play, The Room, was triggered by a recollection of a silent giant and his chattering helpmate (in reality, Quentin Crisp) whom Pinter had met at a Chelsea party. The Birthday Party was inspired by Pinter’s recall, as a touring actor, of sharing filthy digs in Eastbourne with a lodger who claimed to have been a concert-party pianist. The starting point for The Hothouse was Pinter’s horror, as a hard-up actor, of volunteering as a guinea pig for electroconvulsive therapy in a London psychiatric hospital: that clearly left its mark since the same traumatic experience drives a famous Troy Foster and Norman Beaton in The Caretaker, 1981.

Photo John Haynes / Bridgeman Images

speech by Aston in The Caretaker. ‘Most of the plays’ Pinter himself said of his work in his 2005 Nobel Lecture, ‘are engendered by a line, a word or an image’. Also, by a memory that acquires a Proustian significance.

Over the years the play has been subject to psychological, political and religious interpretations – any or all of which may be valid.

Interestingly, Kenneth Tynan wrote a piece in the Observer in 1957 – the very year Pinter wrote his first play – arguing that the genesis of a good play is hardly ever abstract: ‘It tends, on the contrary, to be something as concrete and casual as

a glance intercepted, a remark overheard or an insignificant news item buried at the bottom of page three. Yet it is by trivialities like these that the true playwright’s blood is fired.’ Tynan gives the putative example of a playwright who, after struggling with great themes, is waylaid by his landlady on the stairs who says he looks like George III. ‘Would you know the shortest way to good playwriting?’ asks Tynan. ‘Pause on the stairs.’ Which is precisely what Pinter did to glimpse the image that ignited The Caretaker.

One sign of a great play is its ability to offer new meanings depending on the chemistry between the actors and the cultural context in which it is staged.

The play itself shows the down-and-out Davies being offered temporary shelter by the reclusive Aston, but squandering his good fortune by shifting his allegiance from Aston to his entrepreneurial brother, Mick.

Over the years the play has been subject to psychological, political and religious interpretations – any or all of which may be valid. But, while it will be fascinating to see the approach taken by Justin Audibert and his actors, it may be worth quoting Pinter’s own cryptic observation. Reluctant ever to discuss the meaning of his work, he was once pressed by the critic and director, Charles Marowitz, to explain what The Caretaker was about and replied, ‘Well it’s about love... about this house... these people...’. Pinter’s use of the word ‘love’ is revealing since the one thing one can say with any certainty is that the play uncovers the deep fraternal bond between the highly articulate Mick and the uncommunicative, brain-damaged Aston.

But one sign of a great play is its ability to offer new meanings depending on the chemistry between the actors and the cultural context in which it is staged; and

that is as true of The Caretaker as it is of Hamlet. The story begins with that first production in 1960. Critics raved because they felt Pinter’s once mysterious world had acquired a concrete reality: ‘His characters’ wrote Alan Brien, ‘are now people rooted in a world of insurance stamps and contemporary wallpaper and mental asylums’. While Alan Bates and Peter Woodthorpe were impressive as Mick and Aston, the production was defined

by Donald Pleasence as Davies. He was blustering and belligerent yet also browbeaten. As I once wrote: ‘The voice was strident and cawing; the constant pounding of the left palm with the right fist suggested all the suppressed violence in the man; and yet the perennial stoop, as if he was expecting someone all the time to give him a deft blow between the shoulder-blades, evoked a lifetime of subservience and oppression’.

You could hardly have had a more different approach when Leonard Rossiter played Davies in Christopher Morahan’s 1972 production at the Mermaid.

First hardback edition of the playscript, with Donald Pleasance and Alan Bates on the cover.

Where Pleasence inhabited the character, Rossiter presented him in a consciously comic style. He assumed a mock-gentility and refinement, would deferentially raise two-fingers to his brow in a military salute and allowed his mouth to form a repulsive rectangle like the aperture in a letter box.

This man was a skiver and a malingerer, yet you felt he had earned his place as a caretaker. And when Pleasence himself returned to the role in a 1991 production, directed by Pinter, there was a twilit pathos to his performance I had never seen before: partly because Pleasence was now

George Mackay and Timothy Spall in The Caretaker, 2016.

Photo Manuel Harlan.

a genuinely old man and partly because, after the harshness of the 1980s, our attitude to the homeless had radically changed.

On one level, the play’s action is perfectly clear.

What it finally means is open to question.

No two productions of The Caretaker are ever alike. Kenneth Ives’ version at the National Theatre in 1981 cast actors

of colour to startling effect: Davies’ reflex racism seemed even more shocking when coming out of the mouth of Norman Beaton; and Oscar James’ massive physical presence as Aston lent the character a melancholy dignity. In 2000, Patrick Marber staged a celebrated production at the Comedy – now the Harold Pinter Theatre – in which Michael Gambon’s Davies, Douglas Hodge’s Aston and Rupert Graves’ Mick all emerged as people in the grip of private fantasies. That idea was taken even further in Matthew Warchus’ 2016 revival at The Old Vic which treated the play as a wild comedy

about three men who were all, in different ways, damaged misfits: none more so than George Mackay as Mick rattling off his arias at such furious speed as to suggest there was something manic about him.

Not only does each production of The Caretaker take on a different hue, it is up to each individual to decide what she or he thinks the play is about. On one level, the play’s action is perfectly clear. What it finally means is open to question. Goethe wrote, ‘A play should be symbolic, that is to say: each bit of action must be significant in itself and point to something still more important behind it’. The example he cited was that of Moliere’s Tartuffe. I would argue that you could just as easily apply his words to Pinter’s The Caretaker.

Michael Billington is an arts journalist and author.

‘All them Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker premiered in 1960, at a time of rising hostility towards immigration. In these extracts from his book We’re Here Because You Were There: Immigration and the End of Empire, Ian Sanjay Patel traces the increasing fear of the outsider that is a marked feature of the play.

The Labour Party’s European Unity manifesto in 1950 asserted: ‘Britain is not

just a small crowded island off the Western coast of Continental Europe. She is the nerve centre of a worldwide Commonwealth which extends into every continent. In every respect except distance we in Britain are closer to our kinsmen in Australia and New Zealand on the far side of the world, than we are to Europe.’

This was a bipartisan sentiment. The 1955 Conservative government boasts in

Jamaican immigrants welcomed by RAF officials after the Empire Windrush landed at the Port of Tilbury, 22 June 1948.

Photo PA Images/Alamy.

aliens’ its manifesto that the ‘British Commonwealth and Empire is the greatest force for peace and progress in the world today.’ But away from these idealistic visions of the Commonwealth empire, a not unrelated event at the level of British citizenship would – unbeknownst to politicians – transform British society in very real ways.

The 1948 Act was explosive – one of the more astonishing pieces of legislation ever passed.

This momentous event was the passing of the British Nationality Act in 1948. Without it, post-war immigration to Britain would

never have occurred in the same way or in such numbers. The New York Times – under the headline, ‘British Empire Gets New Nationality Act’ – declared that a ‘sweeping legislative measure’ had formalised British citizenship into several categories, many of which would enjoy ‘equal rights and privileges in the United Kingdom.’

The 1948 Act converted the status of all those who had previously been British subjects in the new status of ‘citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies’, often referred to by politicians simply as ‘British citizenship.’ [It] confirmed inclusive rights of entry into Britain to people in British colonies and independent Commonwealth states (and also Irish citizens, who had a separate status within British nationality having left the Commonwealth). [...]

One historian estimates that the 1948 Act granted no less than 600 million people across the globe full rights to move to and live in Britain – roughly nine times today’s British population. The 1948 Act was explosive – one of the more astonishing pieces of legislation ever passed by a British parliament. It gave identical citizenship and entry rights into Britain both to white Anglo-Saxons born in England and those born in one of forty-seven territories designated as ‘colonies’ around the world.

But politicians in Clement Atlee’s Labour government had little sense of the 1948

Act’s implications for immigration. Britain’s politicians saw the Act simply as the latest exercise in constitutional practice, avoiding imperial dissonance and regularising the Commonwealth empire.

The Second World War saw not only large numbers of South Asians, AfricanCaribbean people and West Africans serve in the British army, navy and air force, but also the direct recruitment of colonial labour into Britain to serve in munitions factories, as well as other areas of defence. Many of those on the SS Almanzora and the more famous SS Windrush, which sailed from Jamaica in 1947 and 1948 respectively, had either served with British forces or worked in munitions factories. [The] Labour government was taken by surprise by these arrivals of migrants. Before the Windrush migrants had even touched shore at Tilbury Docks on 22 June 1948, colonial secretary Arthur Creech Jones provided a memorandum to the cabinet warning of their arrival. Acknowledging that an estimated ‘two-thirds are ex-servicemen,’ Creech Jones explained that they appeared to have ‘saved up enough money to pay for their own passages to England, on the chance of finding employment.’ This was disappointing, since ‘every possible step has been taken by the Colonial Office and by the Jamaica Government to discourage these influxes.’ [...]

Britain was now being projected as a fragile, embattled domestic space – not unlike the old white-settler colonies.

By the mid 1950s, the phrase ‘coloured immigration’ had taken hold among British political elites as a synonym for social unrest and a matter demanding legislative action.

The new prime minister, Winston Churchill (now eighty years old and in office for a second time), was privately warned by a Conservative colleague in 1954 of

Above: British political cartoon, 1958.

Right: Police were called to Notting Hill, London on 31 August 1958 to prevent trouble between black and white residents in the area. Photo Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy

‘an explosion in Brixton’ if the ‘arrival of immigrants from the West Indies’ was allowed to continue. In reply, Churchill is said to have remarked gravely, ‘I think it is the most important subject facing this country.’

That same year, Churchill privately expressed to colleagues his continued misgivings about ‘coloured immigration’, having read in the Daily Telegraph that the Jamaican minister of labour had told local journalists that his government would make no efforts to restrict migration from Jamaica, since employment was easier to find in Britain. Churchill’s concern, and the various indecisive cabinet debates on ‘coloured immigration’ in the mid 1950s, seem disproportionate given that the non-white population of Britain stood at less than 100,000 by the end of 1955.

As the 1950s wore on, declarations that immigration now represented a national social crisis began to increase. In the House of Commons, John Hynd, a Labour MP

born in Perth, Scotland, spoke of ‘these coloured colonial immigrants pouring into the country every year,’ who came without ‘any prospects of work, of housing accommodation, or anything else.’ In his view, the whole of the Caribbean, Africa and Pakistan, among other places, were wellsprings of socially deleterious immigrants intent on entering Britain.

‘I have met some stupid Jamaicans’, Hynd remarked, by way of explanation of his position. [...]

‘All them Blacks had it, Blacks, Greeks, Poles, the lot of them, that’s what, doing me out of a seat, treating me like dirt.’

The Caretaker

The British Nationality Act of 1948 had created an insuperable problem for British politicians: ‘coloured immigrants’ were often fully fledged citizens or Commonwealth citizens, many of whom were willing and able to migrate to Britain despite the huge costs involved. Nevertheless, Britain was edging closer to introducing legislation designed to block non-white migration of British and Commonwealth citizens. The irony was not lost on the preceding Commonwealth relations secretary, Phil Cunliffe-Lister, who wrote to colleagues that Britain was being pushed towards ‘the more or less open discrimination practised in the “old” [white] Commonwealth countries.’ Britain was now being projected as a fragile, embattled domestic space – not unlike the old whitesettler colonies of New South Wales, British Columbia and Natal, and the current African colonies with white-settler populations such as Kenya and Southern Rhodesia, that had garnered Conservative Party sympathy. [...]

Ten years after the passage of the 1948 Act, the city of Nottingham and west London’s Notting Hill saw episodes of racist violence during the months of August and September. On 1 September 1958, a West African student named Seymour Manning was visiting London from his home in Derby.

Emerging from the London Underground

at Latimer Road station in Notting Hill in the mid-afternoon, Manning was on his way to visit a friend who lived nearby when he was chased by ‘marauding white gangs’, as the New York Times would report. Following violence the previous weekend, a large group of young white men had gathered by the railway arches near Latimer Road station, some of whom were armed with sticks, knives and iron bars (the police later confiscated a butcher’s cleaver, a bicycle chain and an open razor).

The fact that Manning was West African and not from Notting Hill’s resident AfricanCaribbean community was lost on a section of the group of white men, who chased the twenty-six-year-old Manning down Bramley Road. Eyewitnesses overheard shouts of ‘lynch him’ and ‘down with the n—gers’ [author’s elision]; as Manning was briefly physically assaulted before taking refuge in a grocery shop whose owner – a woman named Pat Howcroft – gave him shelter.

One of the young men chasing Manning later confided to a journalist from the Manchester Guardian: ‘We’d have tore ‘im apart if it hadn’t been for the police.’

Meanwhile, as Manning waited in safety, the larger group of white men descended on Bramley Road and its surrounding streets later that evening, together with ‘teddy boys’

Above: Norman Manley, Chief Minister of Jamaica, in London for talks with the government about recent racial disturbances, visiting Notting Hill, 9 September 1958.

Photo Keystone Press/Alamy

from local pubs. According to conflicting reports, between 200 and 1,000 ‘white and coloured people’ subsequently clashed together and with police, amid the throwing of broken bottles and a chorus of racist slurs. This was a Monday evening, the violence having started on the previous Friday evening and peaking on Sunday evening. The violence continued on Tuesday, when ‘rioters stormed through the neighbourhood’s shabby streets attacking Negros and destroying their property’, as the New York Times put it.

By the end of the 1950s, non-white British and Commonwealth citizens now settled in Britain began to record the intricate hostilities they faced.

These so-called race riots led to a flurry of media attention. The Economist reported that the new view of the British civil service was that ‘the liberal line – uncontrolled immigration – can be held for a few more years, but not indefinitely’. In a comment that would become a consistent refrain throughout the 1960s, the Commonwealth Migrants Committee stressed to the cabinet in May 1961 that anti-immigration legislation was necessary ‘if we were not to have a colour problem in this country on a similar scale to that in the USA.’ In reality, the violence in 1958 was not new, and might be seen alongside racist violence in Cardiff in 1919 against ‘coloured seamen’, and anti-‘Asiatic’ riots in Vancouver in September 1907. Adil Jussawalla [Indian poet, a migrant to Britain in 1957] wrote of his frustration that, despite the non-white population in Britain being at ‘a ludicrous one per cent’, racial discrimination was ‘open, violent and bloody.’ The events in Notting Hill in 1958 were merely ‘a symptom of unrecorded currents of violence running through Britain’s bigger cities,’ he wrote.

Until white British people went through

some kind of ‘collective emotional crisis,’ reflected Jussawalla, their resentment would remain unchecked. [...]

‘I mean you don’t share the toilet with them Blacks, do you?

They don’t come in?

Because, you know...

I mean... fair’s fair...’

The Caretaker By the end of the 1950s, non-white British and Commonwealth citizens now settled in Britain began to record the intricate hostilities they faced. Adil Jussawalla summarised the lived realities facing some of the largest constituencies of non-white people in Britain – namely, African-Caribbean people, West Africans and South Asians: ‘If he is Indian or Pakistani, he is part of that coloured tribe that lives squalidly twelve to a room, because there is no better place for him, and most of the better rooms he applies for are mysteriously taken. If he is a West Indian or an African he will have to put up with a murderous sex-envy, scandals concerning his private life and obscene myths concerning his background.’ [...]

As migrant arrivals were reconceived as permanent migrant settlement in Britain, ideas about what Britain had become began to crystallise around ‘race relations’.

These ideas interacted with Britain’s international place in the world and the fate of the empire. Especially after the so-called race riots of 1958, British politicians were primed to take drastic action to stem any further immigration of non-white British or Commonwealth citizens.

Dr Ian Sanjay Patel is BJS LSE Fellow in Human Rights at the London School of Economics.

The Caretaker

By Harold Pinter

Cast (in order of appearance) Mick Aston Davies

Jack Riddiford Adam Gillen Ian McDiarmid

The action of the play takes place in a house in West London in the late 1950s.

Act 1 A night in winter Act 2 A few seconds later Act 3 A fortnight later There will be one interval of 20 minutes.

First performance of this new production of The Caretaker at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, 8 June 2024.

Director Designer Lighting Designer Composer Sound Designer Movement Director Fight Director Casting Director

Justin Audibert Stephen Brimson Lewis Simon Spencer Jonathan Girling Ed Clarke Lucy Cullingford Paul Benzing Jessica Ronane CDG

Assistant Director

Nicky Cox

Production Manager Costume Supervisor Props Supervisor

John Page Helen Flower Jamie Owens

Company Stage Manager Deputy Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager

Sophie Sierra Klare Roger Hannah Lipton

Production credits: Set materials reclamation by James Lewis of TIN SHED Scenery; Set construction by TIN SHED Scenery; Scenic Art by Richard Nutbourne Studio; Costume hires supplied by National Theatre Costume Hire and Bristol Costume Services; Props by Flux Metal, Robert Connick, CFT Props Workshop; Lighting hires supplied by White Light; Transport by Paul Mathew Transport; Rehearsal Room Unicorn Theatre.

Live music recorded at Bearwood Baptist Church, Bearwood, West Midlands, with grateful thanks.

Cello: Eduardo Vassallo. Piano: Jonathan Girling.

Rehearsal and production photographs Ellie Kurttz Programme consultant Fiona Richards Programme design Davina Chung Cover image portrait Andy Gotts

Minerva Season Principal Charles Holloway Supported by The Caretaker Supporters Circle: His Honor Michael Baker and Edna Baker, Veronica J Dukes, Themy Hamilton, Nita and Peter Mitchell-Heggs, Lyana Peniston, Jon and Ann Shapiro, Dr Linda Shaw OBE, Jackie and Alan Sherling, Christine and Dave Smithers, Howard M Thompson, Ernest Yelf, Bryan Warnett, John Siebert and all those who wish to remain anonymous.

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Cast Biographies Adam Gillen Aston Theatre includes Thomas in I, Joan, title role in Henry VIII, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe); Charlie Fairbanks in Radio (Arcola Theatre); Chris in Killer Joe (Trafalgar Studios: Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor); Mozart in Amadeus, The Five Wives of Maurice Pinder (National Theatre); Wendy and Peter (RSC); Lotty’s War (Richmond Theatre); Lee Harvey Oswald (Finborough); The School for Scandal (Barbican Theatre); The Door Never Closes (Almeida); For King and Country (Plymouth Theatre Royal & national tour); A Taste of Honey (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Proper Clever (Liverpool Playhouse); War and Peace (Latitude Festival/Royal Court); The Good Soul of Szechuan (Young Vic); The Lion’s Mouth (Royal Court/Rough Cuts).

Adam Gillen

Television includes Boat Story, Kid Gloves, Dave Spud, Benidorm series 4 –10, Prisoners’ Wives, Miss Wright, Way To Go, Fresh Meat, Merry Widows, This Is Jinsy, Just William, The Gemma Factor, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Oliver Twist.

Radio includes We Apologise for Any Inconvenience, Bird in the Sky, Shakespeare’s Fire, The Hot Kid, Rumpole of the Bailey, Diary of a Nobody, On It. Films include Vita and Virginia, We Are the Freaks, Age of Heroes, 4,3,2,1, Hippie Hippie Shake, and the shorts Ma’am, Best Man, The Tanner Family and his own scripted shorts Affection (co-written with Simon Warwick Green) and Dog Shit Town.

As a writer, his one-person play Girl Least Likely To was shortlisted for the Bruntwood Prize 2017.

Trained at RADA.

Ian McDiarmid

Ian McDiarmid Davies Previously at Chichester, The Father in Six Characters in Search of an Author (Minerva Theatre, also Gielgud Theatre & Australian tour).

Theatre includes Teddy in Faith Healer (Almeida Theatre, Booth Theatre, New York & Gate Theatre, Dublin: Tony Award for Best Featured Actor, Critics’ Circle Award for Best Actor); The Lemon Table (UK tour); title role in Faust x 2 (Watermill Theatre); What Shadows (Birmingham Rep); Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Alexei Mischin in The Embalmer (also UK tour), Prospero in The Tempest, Barabas in The Jew of Malta (also UK tour), Ridgeon in The Doctor’s Dilemma (also UK tour), Orgon in Tartuffe, Lord Provost in The Government Inspector, Count Cenci in The Cenci, Arnolphe in School for Wives, title role in Volpone (all Almeida Theatre); Jonah and Otto (Manchester Royal Exchange Studio); Bakersfield Mist (Duchess Theatre); Maximus in Emperor and Galilean (National Theatre); The Prince of Homburg, Be Near Me (also Kilmarnock Theatre and National Theatre of Scotland), title role in John Gabriel Borkman, title role in Henry IV (Donmar Warehouse); title role in Lear (Sheffield Crucible); The Black Prince (RSC Aldwych); The Country Wife, Don

Carlos, Edward II (Manchester Royal Exchange); The Danton Affair (RSC Barbican); Downchild, The Castle, Crimes in Hot Countries, The War Plays, The Party (RSC Stratford & Barbican The Pit); Insignificance (Royal Court: Olivier Award for Best Actor).

Television includes Britannia, Star Wars: Rebels, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ivanov, Macbeth, Utopia, 37 Days, Margaret, City of Vice, Our Hidden Lives, Elizabeth I, Spooks, Charles II, Crime and Punishment, All the King’s Men, Great Expectations, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, Touching Evil, Rebecca, Hillsborough, Cold Lazarus, Karaoke, Annie: A Royal Adventure, Heart of Darkness, Selected Exits, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Chernobyl: The Final Warning, Inspector Morse, Pity in History, The Professionals, Last Night Another Dissident.

Films include Star Wars 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 9, Lost City of Z, Sleepy Hollow, Restoration, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Gorky Park, Dragonslayer, Sir Henry at Rawlinson’s End, The Awakening, Richard’s Things, The Likely Lads.

Ian McDiarmid was joint Artistic Director of the Almeida Theatre 1990-2002.

Jack Riddiford Mick Theatre includes Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Ferdinand in The Duchess of Malfi (Almeida); Lee in Jerusalem (Apollo Theatre); Young Walter in The Inheritance (Noël Coward Theatre); Mike in A View from the Bridge, Malcolm in Macbeth (Tobacco Factory Bristol); Higgy in Junkyard (Headlong).

Television includes We Are Lady Parts, Deceit, McDonald & Dodds, Doc Martin, Poldark.

Films include Guns Akimbo, Dunkirk, Journey’s End. Trained at RADA.

Jack Riddiford

Creative Team Justin Audibert Director Justin has been Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre since July 2023.

Previously, he was Artistic Director of the Unicorn Theatre where he directed The Three Billy Goats Gruff (also at the Minerva Theatre), Pinocchio, Marvin’s Binoculars, The Canterville Ghost, Anansi The Spider, Aesop’s Fables, Beowulf and My Mother Medea.

Justin Audibert

Other recent theatre directing credits include: The Box of Delights, The Taming of the Shrew (also broadcast live to cinemas internationally), Snow in Midsummer and The Jew of Malta (Royal Shakespeare Company); Macbeth and The Winter’s Tale (National Theatre); The Box of Delights (Wilton’s Music Hall); The Cardinal (Southwark Playhouse); The Jumper Factory (Young Vic Prison Project); How (Not) to Live in Suburbia and Wingman (Soho Theatre);

The Man with The Hammer (Plymouth Theatre Royal); Unscorched (Finborough Theatre); and Gruesome Playground Injuries (Gate Theatre).

His productions of Macbeth and The Winter’s Tale, both adapted by him for young audiences, are part of the National Theatre Collection; and he wrote and presented the two BBC Live Lessons on Shakespeare for the RSC. For Unicorn Online, his work included Marvin’s Binoculars, Anansi The Spider Re-spun and Philip Pullman’s Hansel and Gretel. He directed the short film Joseph Knight for the National Theatre of Scotland and BBC Scotland.

In 2012 he was the recipient of the Leverhulme Award for Emerging Directors from the National Theatre Studio. He is a trustee of Invisible Flock and the Peggy Ramsay Foundation, and is on the Advisory Council for the Children’s Touring Partnership.

Paul Benzing Fight Director Previously at Chichester, Murder on the Orient Express, Sweeney Todd (also West End), Heartbreak House, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Guys and Dolls, Young Chekhov (also National Theatre), Ross, Peter Pan, Sweet Bird of Youth (Festival Theatre); Private Lives and The Pajama Game (also West End), Shang-a-lang, The Rehearsal (Minerva Theatre).

Theatre includes War Horse, Hedda Gabler, Amadeus, Great Britain, Antigone, Emperor and Galilean, Nation, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Mother Courage and her Children at the National Theatre; The Seven Acts of Mercy (RSC); Don Giovanni (Glyndebourne); The Girl on the Train, How The Other Half Loves (Salisbury Playhouse); The Three Musketeers (Southampton/ Basingstoke); Journey’s End (Comedy Theatre); Hamlet (Young Vic/Nuffield, Southampton); National Anthem (Old Vic); Lear, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

(Sheffield Crucible); A Clockwork Orange, Our Friends in the North, Close the Coalhouse Door, Blue Remembered Hills, Catch 22, Get Carter (Northern Stage);

Black Comedy, Moonlight and Magnolias, Of Mice and Men, Sleuth, A Bunch of Amateurs, The Lady Killers (Watermill, Newbury); Troilus and Cressida (Cheek By Jowl); West Side Story (Wandsworth Prison); Dreams of Violence, Flight Path (Out of Joint); Othello (Ludlow Festival); Zadia (Classical Opera); What the Butler Saw, Beasts and Beauties, Firebird (Hampstead); Wild Oats (Bristol Old Vic); The Comedy of Errors, Into the Woods (Regent’s Park); The Country Wife, The Sea, Marguerite, West Side Story, Buddy, Elf – The Musical (West End).

Television includes Manchester Passion.

He has also arranged fights for Parkshow Productions, a company that puts on stunt shows in theme parks throughout the UK and Europe.

Stephen Brimson Lewis Designer Previously at Chichester, Heartbreak House, Separate Tables, Racing Demon (Festival Theatre), The Master Builder (Minerva Theatre).

Stephen won an Olivier Award for his set and a nomination for Costume Design for Les Parents Terribles at the National Theatre, and was nominated for a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Scenic Design and Best Costume Design for its run as Indiscretions on Broadway.

He also won an Olivier Award for Design for Living at the Gielgud and Donmar Warehouse. Stephen was nominated for a Falstaff Award for Best Scenic Design for Henry IV Parts I & II and an Evening Standard Theatre Award for Much Ado About Nothing, both RSC. He is an Associate Artist with the RSC and was Director of Design where credits include Richard II, Merry Wives – The Musical, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, Cymbeline, Richard III, Henry VI: Rebellion, Wars of the Roses, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure, A Christmas Carol, The Tempest, King and Country: Shakespeare’s Great Cycle of Kings, Volpone and Death of

a Salesman, many of which transferred to the West End, Japan or Washington.

Other credits include Love in Idleness (Apollo Theatre West End & Menier Chocolate Factory); The Tempest (Barbican Centre); No Man’s Land (UK tour, West End & Berkley Repertory Theatre); Dirty Dancing (set, UK, US & international tour); Waiting for Godot/No Man’s Land (Broadway/ Cort Theater).

Opera includes La Bohème (Welsh National Opera); The Legend of Joseph (Staatsoper Berlin); Tales of Hoffman

The company

(Sydney Opera House); L’Elisir (costumes, Dallas Opera & San Diego Opera); The Barber of Seville (Royal Opera House); Othello (sets, Vienna State Opera); The Turn of the Screw (Australian Opera) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (Monte Carlo Opera).

Films include Bent and Macbeth (production designer), The Nightmare Years (costume designer).

Ed Clarke Sound Designer Theatre sound designs include Frankenstein, The Good Hope and The Mysteries (National Theatre); Wolf Witch Giant Fairy (Little Bulb Theatre & Royal Opera House); Showboat (New London Theatre); Backbeat (Duke of York’s); Orpheus (Little Bulb, Battersea Arts Centre, Salzburg Festival); Baddies and Pinocchio (Unicorn Theatre); Nine Lives (Leeds Studio & Bridge Theatre); Pied Piper (Battersea Arts Centre & Beatbox Academy); After the Act

(Breach Theatre); Doncastrian Chalk Circle (National Theatre Public Acts); Sinners (Playground Theatre); Canary and The Crow, Us Against Whatever and All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (Middle Child Theatre); An Adventure, Leave Taking, The Royale, Perseverance Drive, The Invisible and FEAR (Bush Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Hull Truck, Leeds Playhouse); Oliver Twist (Hull Truck); Beauty and The Beast (Improbable Theatre, One Of Us); The Ballad of Corona-V, Bullett Tongue, Phoenix Rising, Knife Edge, Electric, Politrix and Brixton

Rock (Big House Theatre); The Infidel (Theatre Royal Stratford East).

Ed has also mixed live sound for Anna Calvi, Van der Graaf Generator, The Waeve, Calvin Singh, and John Tams.

Nicky Cox Assistant Director Theatre as Director: Machinal (Year Out Drama); The Bah Humbug Club (Lichfield Garrick Studio); Edifying Eddy (The Hub at St Mary’s Lichfield); Georgie the Knight (also writer, RSC); Titania’s Dream (Compton

Jack Riddiford Ian McDiarmid

Verney); The Norman Conquests Trilogy, The 39 Steps, One Man Two Guv’nors, Toad of Toad Hall, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Brief Encounter, The Hound of the Baskervilles (The Bear Pit Theatre); Hidden Histories of New Place (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust); Signifying Nothing (Blue Orange Theatre); Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Love Bites (Westcountry Theatre Company); The Winter’s Tale, The Crucible, Mother Courage, A Christmas Carol, Henry V (Stage One Youth Theatre); Man to Man (Wooden Fish Theatre).

As Assistant/Resident Director: The Ocean at the End of the Lane (National Theatre Productions tour & West End); First Encounters: Twelfth Night (RSC Schools & regional tour); Tartuffe, Three Letters, Kingdom Come, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC); Much Ado About Nothing (Westcountry Theatre Company/ Minack Theatre).

Nicky has been Associate Learning Practitioner for the RSC since 2017, Lead Artist Practitioner for Warts and All Theatre (2020-21) and Freelance Drama Workshop

Facilitator for Freshwater Theatre (2020-23).

Trained at Dartington College of Arts.

Lucy Cullingford Movement Director Previously at Chichester, King Lear (Minerva Theatre & Duke of York’s Theatre).

For the National Theatre: Dear Octopus, The Father and the Assassin, All of Us, Death of England, The Winter’s Tale.

In the West End: King Lear, Don Quixote and My Mother Said I Never Should.

Other Theatre includes: Measure for Measure, The Taming of the Shrew, Coriolanus, Snow in Midsummer, The Tempest, Don Quixote, The Jew of Malta and Matilda The Musical (dance repetiteur, in the West End) for the RSC; Shakespeare’s Macbeth (international tour); Medea (@sohoplace); Top Girls (Liverpool Everyman); Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic); Constellations (Royal Court, West End, Broadway & on tour); Bridgerton (Secret Cinema); The Wizard of Oz, A Christmas Carol and The Night Before Christmas (Leeds Playhouse); Anansi (Unicorn Theatre); A Thousand Splendid Suns, 101 Dalmatians and Of Mice and Men (Birmingham Rep); The Remains of the Day (Out of Joint and Royal & Derngate); Swallows and Amazons (Storyhouse); Mountains (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Abigail’s Party (also UK tour), Talking Heads, The Mother, The Double and The Spanish Golden Age (Theatre Royal Bath); The Shadow Factory (Nuffield); Anything Is Possible If You Think About It Hard Enough and No Place for a Woman (Small Things Theatre); The Last Mermaid (Wales Millennium Centre); East is East (Northern Stage and Nottingham Playhouse).

Jonathan Girling Composer Theatre credits include The Kite Runner (Broadway, West End, simultaneous UK & Ireland & USA tours in 2024); The Winter’s Tale (National Theatre 2018 & 2019), Macbeth (National Theatre 2017 & UK tour 2018); The Jew of Malta, Anya, The American Pilot, White Out (RSC);

Sleuth (Nottingham & West Yorkshire Playhouse); Bitter Flower (Washington DC); Charlie Peace and Families of Lockerbie (Nottingham Playhouse); Playhouse Creatures, Intemperance (New Vic); Aesop’s Fables (Unicorn Theatre); Margaret Catchpole (Eastern Angles); Three Wheels (Birmingham REP); Flight of Hope (People Show); Dreaming (BSA); Nine Lives (Bridge Theatre & Leeds Studio).

Classical commissions include Gogmagog (English National Opera), Lights Out (New York Arts), Grimm Tales (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Radio 3), Flight to the Ford (CBSO), It’s not a game (Evelyn Glennie), The Long Lost Son (Evelyn Glennie & Armonico Consort), Black Heart and A Little Madness (BBC Singers), O Rex Gentium (Ex Cathedra), with further commissions for Festivals across the UK. Jonathan won a Royal Television Society Award with Losing It (Channel 4). He also won the Artists’ International Development Award (British Council & Arts Council England) for the dance work Living Lakes in the USA, winning further national compositional awards with The Ice Palace Violin Concerto, for the orchestral Weep, and Octet with the London Sinfonietta.

He’s arranged, composed and conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Pinewood and Abbey Road Studios for music that is broadcast and played worldwide through Audio Network.

Jonathan gratefully acknowledges awards and support from the Holst Foundation, the Arts Council, The Performing Rights Society, the Music Union, the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Theatre Development Fund. He holds a Doctorate in Musical Composition and a BA (First Class Hons) in Music.

Harold Pinter Writer Harold Pinter was born in London in 1930.

He lived with Antonia Fraser from 1975 until his death on Christmas Eve 2008.

(They were married in 1980.)

After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Central School Ian McDiarmid Adam Gillen

of Speech and Drama, he worked as an actor under the stage name David Baron.

Following his success as a playwright, he continued to act under his own name, on stage and screen. He last acted in 2006 when he appeared in Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape at the Royal Court Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson.

He wrote twenty-nine plays including The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter, A Slight Ache, The Hothouse, The Caretaker, The Collection, The Lover, The Homecoming, Old Times, No Man’s Land, Betrayal, A Kind of Alaska, One For The Road, The New World Order, Moonlight and Ashes to Ashes. Sketches include The Black and White, Request Stop, That’s your Trouble, Night, Precisely, Apart from That and the recently rediscovered, Umbrellas.

He directed twenty-seven theatre productions, including James Joyce’s

Exiles, David Mamet’s Oleanna, seven plays

by Simon Gray (one of which was Butley in 1971 which he directed the film of three years later) and many of his own plays including his last, Celebration, paired with his first, The Room at The Almeida Theatre, London in the spring of 2000.

He wrote twenty-one screenplays including The Pumpkin Eater, The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant’s Woman and Sleuth.

In 2005 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Other awards include the Companion of Honour for services to Literature, the Legion D’Honneur, the European Theatre Prize, the Laurence Olivier Award and the Moliere D’Honneur for lifetime achievement. In 1999 he was made a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature. Harold Pinter was awarded eighteen honorary degrees.

Jessica Ronane CDG Casting Director Also for Festival 2024, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (Minerva Theatre).

For Second Half Productions: The Little Foxes (upcoming, Young Vic); Long Day’s Journey into Night (Wyndham’s); Ulster American (Riverside Studios); A Mirror (Almeida & West End); The Glass Menagerie (Duke of York’s).

For The Old Vic: Pygmalion, The Dumb Waiter, Faith Healer, Endgame/Rough for Theatre II, A Christmas Carol, Lungs, A Very Expensive Poison, Present Laughter, All My Sons, The American Clock, SYLVIA, A Monster Calls, Mood Music, Fanny & Alexander, Woyzeck, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, King Lear, The Caretaker, The Master Builder, Dr Seuss’s The Lorax, The Hairy Ape, Future Conditional, Girl from the North Country

(also West End), The Divide (also Edinburgh International Festival).

For the West End: Stranger Things (Phoenix); The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre at the Gillian Lynne).

Television includes True Detective, Night Country, The Amazing Mr Blunden.

Films include the upcoming After the Hunt, Julie, Mickey 17, Queer, Good Grief, Emma, The Kid Who Would Be King.

Jessica Ronane is Casting Director for Second Half Productions, Casting Consultant for the Old Vic and co-chair of the Casting Directors Guild.

Simon Spencer Lighting Designer Theatre as Lighting Designer includes The Tempest (Royal Shakespeare Theatre/ Barbican Theatre: nominations for Best Lighting Designer Stage Debut Awards, and Best Lighting Design Falstaff Awards); Romeo and Juliet (Secret Cinema Gunnersbury Park); Measure for Measure (Royal Shakespeare Theatre); Carmen (Longborough Festival Opera); Henry VI Rebellion and Wars of the Roses (Royal Shakespeare Theatre).

As Relight Designer: Antony and Cleopatra (RSC Swan Theatre);

Ian McDiarmid Jack Riddiford

Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (Newcastle Theatre Royal & Barbican Theatre); Death of a Salesman (West End). As Associate Lighting Designer Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Henry V (King & Country tour, Barbican Theatre, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Brooklyn Academy of Music).

Other work includes Dr Faustus (Associate Lighting Designer: West Yorkshire Playhouse & Glasgow Citizens); Moses und Aron (Assistant Lighting Designer: Welsh National Opera); Guys and Dolls (Associate Lighting Designer: Phoenix Theatre).

Events

The Caretaker In Conversation with Justin Audibert Wednesday 12 June, 5.30pm In his first Festival season, hear from our new Artistic Director Justin Audibert about his plans for the future of CFT. Hosted by our Creative Associate Sophie Hobson and members of our Youth Advisory Board.

Free but booking is essential.

Theatre Day Thursday 27 June, 10.30am Get a real insider’s view at our Theatre Day with members of the creative team and technical crew.

Over 90 minutes, you’ll enjoy demonstrations and discussion.

For a completely immersive day, combine with a matinee ticket. £12 (plus optional show ticket)

Post-Show Talk Thursday 4 July Stay after the performance to hear from company members about all the action behind the scenes and ask questions of your own.

Free Pre- and Post-Show Talks sponsored by Close Brothers Asset Management

Consider yourself part of the CFT family Get closer to CFT and become part of our community with our Learning, Education and Participation team (you can call them LEAP for short).

Whatever your age or ability, there’s something for you at CFT. From people who have been coming to CFT for years, to those who have never set foot in a theatre, we offer exciting opportunities for everyone from newborns to those in their 90s.

Weekly classes. One-off workshops. Long term projects to get your teeth into.

Our LEAP team does it all.

This is a space where experiences are created and shared, and where everyone can find their place. So come join us, and become part of our story.

‘Working at the theatre under many guises gave me a well-rounded knowledge of our industry and the support was always there and still is – I wouldn’t be where I am without it. Please never stop working tirelessly to grow us into the next generation.’

Former CFYT member

‘I’ve discovered abilities I never knew I had. The classes contribute greatly to my quality of life and to that of the wider community.’

Community participant

So many people think they know what we do here at CFT. But did you know that we offer: • Free Youth Theatre places for young carers and anyone from underprivileged backgrounds

• Groups for adults with disabilities

• A creative outlet for isolated individuals through our weekly Chatter Project

• Wellbeing support for participants, visiting cast and company members, and staff

• Weekly Festival Fridays for kids who find creative ways of learning more accessible

• Free Buddy support for anyone who feels unable to attend shows or classes on their own

• Work experience, training opportunities and apprenticeships

• Training opportunities in Technical Theatre And that’s really just scratching the surface of our LEAP team’s reach.

Visit cft.org.uk/get-closer or email leap@cft.org.uk to find out more and discover a way into CFT that’s right for you.

With thanks to all our amazing LEAP supporters who generously fund this work.

Help us hatch the next generation of talent We have an urgent need to build a third space for emerging artists, community groups and families.

Our solution is The Nest: a sustainably built performance venue nestled among the trees, providing a safe space to incubate exciting new projects.

It will be a home for community and families, late night and fringe-style events, and it will hatch the work of our Emerging Artists Development Programme.

Help us make our dream a reality The Nest will cost at least £1,500,000 and we need your support to make it happen.

‘The Nest offers an amazing opportunity on a local level and also, really importantly, stands CFT confidently as a national cultural leader and change maker.’

JUSTIN AUDIBERT, CFT ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Registered Charity No. 1088552

Please donate today cft.org.uk/the-nest

Staff Trustees Mark Foster (Chairman) Neil Adleman Jessica Brown-Fuller Jean Vianney Cordeiro Paddy Dillon Tasha Gladman Vicki Illingworth Rear Admiral John Lippiett CB CBE Harry Matovu QC Caro Newling OBE Nick Pasricha Philip Shepherd Stephanie Street Hugh Summers Directors Office Justin Audibert Kathy Bourne Keshira Aarabi Helena Berry Angela Buckley

Artistic Director Executive Director Projects & Events Co-ordinator Heritage & Archive Manager Projects, Events & Green Book Co-ordinator

Miranda Cromwell Sophie Hobson Hannah Joss

Associate Director Creative Associate Associate Director (Literary)

Simon Parsonage

Interim Finance & Commercial Director

Amanda Trodd Protozoon Ltd

Management Accountant IT Consultants

LEAP Ellen de Vere Matthew Downer

Youth & Outreach Trainee Cultural Learning & Participation Apprentice

Zoe Ellis Sally Garner-Gibbons

LEAP Co-ordinator Apprenticeship Co-ordinator

Matthew Hawksworth

Head of Children & Young People’s Programme

Hannah Hogg

Senior Youth & Outreach Manager

Shari A. Jessie Kate Potter

Creative Therapist Youth & Outreach Co-ordinator

Louise Rigglesford

Senior Community & Outreach Manager

Dale Rooks Angela Watkins

Director of LEAP LEAP Projects Manager

Marketing, Communications & Sales Josh Allan Assistant Box Office Manager

Patricia Key Aimée Massey

Executive PA Diversity, Inclusion & Change Consultant

Caroline Aston Becky Batten

Julia Smith

Company Secretary & Board Support

Laura Bern

Head of Marketing (Maternity cover)

Jessica Blake-Lobb

Marketing Manager (Corporate)

Building & Site Services Chris Edwards Maintenance Engineer Lez Gardiner Duty Engineer Daren Rowland Facilities Manager Graeme Smith Duty Engineer Costume Jessica Bolton Brooke Bowden Ev Butcher Isabelle Brook Helen Clark Chris Davenport Maddie Ecclestone

Dresser Wardrobe Manager Dresser Wardrobe Assistant Dresser Wardrobe Manager Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Trainee

Lily Eugene-Kelly Aly Fielden Helen Flower Helen Gardner Lysanne Goble Jobina Hardy

Dresser Wardrobe Manager Senior Costume Assistant Wardrobe Manager Wardrobe Assistant Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Assistant

Abigail Hart Sophie Kemp Kendal Love

Wardrobe Assistant Wardrobe Assistant Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Manager Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Assistant

Lulu Millen Natasha Pawluk

Deputy Wigs, Hair & Make-Up

Andy Robinson Roseby Willow Scovell

Wardrobe Trainee Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Assistant

Isobel Shackleton

Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Assistant

Hannah Sinclair

Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Assistant

Loz Tait Colette Tulley Rachel Usher Eloise Wood

Head of Costume Wardrobe Maintenance Dresser Wigs, Hair & Make-Up Assistant

Development Nick Carmichael Development Officer Julie Field Friends Administrator Sophie Henstridge-Brown Head of Philanthropy Sarah Mansell Liz McCarthy-Nield Leo Powell Charlotte Stroud Karen Taylor Megan Wilson

Finance Alison Baker Rob Bloomfield Sally Cunningham Krissie Harte Katie Palmer

Appeal Director Development Director Appeal Co-ordinator Development Manager Development Manager Events and Development Officer

Helen Campbell Jay Godwin Lorna Holmes

Audience Insight Manager Head of Marketing (Maternity leave)

Box Office Systems Manager Box Office Assistant Assistant Box Office Manager

Mollie Kent Box Office Assistant Stephanie McKelvey-Aves Box OfficeAssistant James Mitchell Sales & Marketing Assistant James Morgan Lucinda Morrison Brian Paterson Kirsty Peterson Ben Phillips

Distribution Co-ordinator Box Office Assistant Marketing & Press Assistant

Catherine Rankin Vic Shead Luke Shires

Box Office Assistant Marketing Manager Director of Marketing & Communications

Jenny Thompson

Social Media & Digital Marketing Officer

Grace Upcraft Josh Vine Isobel Walter Claire Walters Joanna Wiege Jane Wolf

Box Office Assistant Box Office Assistant Marketing Officer Box Office Assistant Box Office Manager Box Office Assistant

People Paula Biggs Jenefer Francis Naz Jahir Emily Oliver Annie Thomas Bent Gillian Watkins

Head of People HR Officer (maternity leave) People Manager Accommodation Co-ordinator People Administrator HR Officer

Production Niamh Dilworth Producer Amelia Ferrand-Rook Senior Producer Robin Longley General Manager Claire Rundle Production Administrator George Waller Trainee Producer Nicky Wingfield Production Administrator Technical Sam Barnes Sound Technician Steph Bartle Deputy Head of Lighting Victoria Baylis Props Assistant Josh Bowles Senior Sound Technician Hannah Bracegirdle Sound Technician Finley Bradley Technical Theatre Apprentice Rebecca Cran Stage Crew & Stage Technician Sarah Crispin

Payroll & Pensions Officer IT and AV Technician Purchase Ledger Assistant Finance Officer Assistant Management Accountant

Head of Sales & Ticketing Head of Press & Publications

Connor Divers Elise Fairbairn Zoe Gadd Ross Gardner Lyla Garner-Gibbons Sam Garner-Gibbons

Deputy Head of Props Workshop Lighting Technician Stage Technician Sound Technician Stage Crew Stores Assistant Technical Director

Jack Goodland Fuzz Guthrie Laura Hackett Jamie Hall Anaya Hammond Katie Hennessy Tom Hitchins Joe Jenner

Stage Crew & Auto Technician Senior Sound Technician Technical Apprentice Sound Technician Stage Crew Props Store Co-ordinator Head of Stage & Technical Production Manager Apprentice

Mike Keniger Head of Sound Bethany Knowles Stage Crew Andrew Leighton Senior Lighting Technician Ethan Low Stage Crew Connor McConnell No.1 Sound Engineer Charlotte Neville Head of Props Workshop Stuart Partrick Transport & Logistics Assistant Neil Rose Deputy Head of Sound Ernesto Ruiz Prop Maker Max Rusbridge Stage Crew Anna Setchell (Setch) Deputy Head of Stage James Sharples Senior Stage Crew & Rigger Sophie Spencer Laura Sprake Graham Taylor Dominic Turner Linda Mary Wise Simon Woods

Stage Crew Senior Lighting Technician Head of Lighting Lighting Technician Sound Technician Stage Crew

Theatre Management Janet Bakose Judith Bruce-Hay Charlie Gardiner Ben Geering

Theatre Manager Duty Manager Duty Manager Head of Customer Operations

Dan Hill Assistant House Manager Will McGovern Deputy House Manager Sharon Meier PA to Theatre Manager Gabriele Williams Deputy House Manager Caper & Berry Catering Proclean Cleaning Ltd Cleaning Contractor Goldcrest Guarding

Security

Stage Door: Bob Bentley, Janet Bounds, Judith Bruce-Hay, Caroline Hanton, Keiko Iwamoto, Chris Monkton, Sue Welling Ushers: Miranda Allemand, Judith Anderson, Maria Antoniou, Jacob Atkins, Carolyn Atkinson, Ieva Bagdonaite, Brian Baker, Richard Berry, Emily Biro, Gloria Boakes, Alex Bolger, Dennis Brombley, Judith Bruce-Hay, Louisa Chandler, Jo Clark, Gaye Douglas, Stella Dubock, Amanda Duckworth, Clair Edgell, Lexi Finch, Suzanne Ford, Suzanne France, Jessica Frewin-Smith, Nigel Fullbrook, Barry Gamlin, Charlie Gardiner, Lyla Garner-Gibbons, Anna Grindel, Caroline Hanton, Justine Hargraves, Joseph Harrington, Joanne Heather, Maisie Henderson, Marie Innes, Keiko Iwamoto, Joan Jenkins, Pippa Johnson, Julie Johnstone, Ryan Jones, Jan Jordan, Jon Joshua, Grace King, Sally Kingsbury, Alexandra Langrish, Judith Marsden, Janette McAlpine, Fiona Methven, Chris Monkton, Ella Morgans, Susan Mulkern, Chris Murray, Lucija O’Donnell, Isabel Owen, Martyn Pedersen, Susy Peel, Helen Pinn, Barbara Pope, Alice Rochford, Sian Rodd, Fleur Sarkissian, Derren Selvarajah, Peg Shaw, Janet Showell, Lorraine Stapley, Sophie Stirzaker, Angela Stodd, Christine Tippen, Charlotte Tregear, Andy Trust, Hannah Watts, Sue Welling, Gemma Wilcox, James Wisker, Dawn Wood, Donna Wood, Kim Wylam.

We acknowledge the work of all those who give so generously of their time for Chichester Festival Theatre, including our CFT Buddies, Heritage & Archive Volunteers, and our Volunteer Audio Description Team: Lily Barkes, Janet Beckett, Richard Chapman, Tony Clark, Robert Dunn, Geraldine Firmston, Suzanne France, Richard Frost, David Phizackerley, Christopher Todd, Joanna Wiege.

Youth Advisory Board: Issie Berg Rust, Theo Craig, Anayis Der Hakopian, Esther Dracott, Chloe Gibson, Aled Hanson, Ophelia Kabdenova, Alice Kilgallon, Francesca McBride, Ace Merriot, Katherine Munden, Jacob Simmonds, Susie Udall, Priya Uddin.

Our Supporters 2024/5 Minerva Season Principal Charles Holloway Major Donors Deborah Alun-Jones Robin and Joan Alvarez Elizabeth and the late David Benson Philip Berry George W. Cameron OBE and Madeleine Cameron Sir William and Lady Castell David and Claire Chitty David and Jane Cobb John and Susan Coldstream Clive and Frances Coward Yvonne and John Dean Jim Douglas Nick and Lalli Draper Mrs Veronica J Dukes Melanie Edge Sir Vernon Ellis Huw Evans Steve and Sheila Evans Val and Richard Evans Sandy and Mark Foster Simon and Luci Eyers Robert and Pirjo Gardiner Angela and Uri Greenwood Themy Hamilton Lady Heller and the late Sir Michael Heller Liz Juniper Roger Keyworth Vaughan and Sally Lowe Jonathan and Clare Lubran Elizabeth Miles Eileen Norris Jerome and Elizabeth O’Hea Denise Patterson DL Stuart and Carolyn Popham Dame Patricia Routledge DBE David Shalit MBE and Sophie Shalit Greg and Katherine Slay Christine and Dave Smithers Alan and Jackie Stannah Oliver Stocken CBE Howard Thompson Bryan Warnett Ernest Yelf

Trusts and Foundations The Arthur Williams Charitable Trust The Arts Society, Chichester The Bassil Shippam and Alsford Trust The Bernadette Charitable Trust Bruce Wake Charitable Trust The Chartered Accountants’ Livery Charity Dora Green Educational Trust The Dorus Trust The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Elizabeth, Lady Cowdray’s Charity Trust Epigoni Trust Friarsgate Trust The Garrick Charitable Trust The G D Charitable Trust Hobhouse Charitable Trust John Coates Charitable Trust The Mackintosh Foundation The Maurice Marshal Preference Trust Noël Coward Foundation Rotary Club of Chichester Harbour Theatre Artists Fund Wickens Family Foundation

Festival Players 1000+ John and Joan Adams Lindy Ambrose and Tom Reid Sarah and Tony Bolton Robert Brown Ian and Jan Carroll C Casburn and B Buckley Jean Campbell Sarah Chappatte David Churchill Denise Clatworthy Michael and Jill Cook Lin and Ken Craig Deborah Crockford Clive and Kate Dilloway Jim Douglas Peter and Ruth Doust Gary Fairhall Mr Nigel Fullbrook George Galazka Wendy and John Gehr Marion Gibbs CBE Stephen J Gill Mr & Mrs Paul Goswell Rachel and Richard Green Ros and Alan Haigh Rowland and Caroline Hardwick Chris and Carolyn Hughes John and Jenny Lippiett Anthony and Fiona Littlejohn Alan and Virginia Lovell Dr and Mrs Nick Lutte Sarah Mansell and Tim Bouquet Patrick Martyn Rod Matthews James and Anne McMeehan Roberts Mrs Sheila Meadows Mrs Michael Melluish Celia Merrick Roger and Jackie Morris Jacquie Ogilvie Mr and Mrs Gordon Owen Graham and Sybil Papworth Richard Parkinson and Hamilton McBrien Nick and Jo Pasricha John Pritchard Trust Philip Robinson Nigel and Viv Robson Ros and Ken Rokison David and Linda Skuse Peter and Lucy Snell Julie Sparshatt Joanna Walker Ian and Alison Warren Angela Wormald

Festival Players 500+ Judy Addison Smith Mr James and Lady Emma Barnard (The Barness Charity Trust) Martin Blackburn Janet Bounds Frances Brodsky and Peter Parham Sally Chittleburgh Mr and Mrs Jeremy Chubb Mr Charles Collingwood and Miss Judy Bennett Lady Finch Colin and Carole Fisher Beryl Fleming Karin and Jorge Florencio Roz Frampton Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner Dr Stuart Hall Dennis and Joan Harrison Barbara Howden Richards Karen and Paul Johnston Frank and Freda Letch Anthony and Fiona Littlejohn Jim and Marilyn Lush Selina and David Marks Dr and Mrs Nick Lutte Sue Marsh Adrian Marsh and Maggie Stoker Trevor and Lynne Matthews Tim McDonald Mrs Mary Newby Margaret and Martin Overington Jean Plowright Ben Reeder Robin Roads Graham and Maureen Russel David Seager John and Tita Shakeshaft Mr and Mrs Brian Smouha Elizabeth Stern Anne Subba-Row Harry and Shane Thuillier Miss Melanie Tipples Penny Tomlinson Tina Webster Chris and Dorothy Weller Nick and Tarnia Williams

...and to all those who wish to remain anonymous, thank you for your incredible support.

‘Chichester Festival Theatre enriches lives with its work both on and off stage. It is a privilege to be connected in a small way with this inspirational and generous-hearted institution, especially at such a challenging time for everyone in the Arts.’

John and Susan Coldstream, Major Donors

Our Supporters 2024/5 Principal Partners Platinum Level

Prof. E.F. Juniper and Mrs Jilly Styles Gold Level

Silver Level

Corporate Partners Carpenter Box Jones Avens FBG Investment J Leon Group

Montezuma’s Oldham Seals Group Phoenix Dining

William Liley Financial Services Ltd

Why not join us and support the Theatre you love: cft.org.uk/support-us | development.team@cft.org.uk | 01243 812911

We are... sustainably minded In 2024, we’re aiming to meet Theatre Green Book basic standards. What does that mean?

Well, 50% of the production’s set, props and costumes will be renewed or recycled.

And at least 65% will be reused in the future.

So far, we’re on target to meet this standard for all our Minerva Theatre productions, including The Caretaker. We’re also on track to meet or exceed this for Redlands and Cinderella. Check back on our website to keep up with our journey to ‘go green’.

cft.org.uk