Festival theatre unveils its 2025 programme

The theatre's 2025 programme includes Top Hat, Lord of the Flies and a musical version of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Top Hat, Lord of the Flies and a musical version of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry are among the offerings this year at a theatre in West Sussex.

The Chichester Festival Theatre's 2025 season also consists of the venue's first ever production of Hamlet, while its new studio space, The Nest, will be unveiled in July.

Mark Addy, Natalie Dormer, and Beverley Knight are among the performers who will be involved this year.

Artistic director Justin Audibert told BBC Radio Sussex that the summer musical Top Hat would be "wonderful" and that director Kathleen Marshall was "magic".

"[She] can do that thing where you have 30 people doing a tap dancing number and filling up your soul with pure joy," he said.

December promises to be a big month, with The Three Little Pigs and a first stage adaptation of Matt Haig's contemporary classic, A Boy Called Christmas, among the productions slated for the festive season.

Meanwhile, guest director Anoushka Shankar, the Grammy-nominated musician, has announced the line-up for Brighton Festival 2025 which will run from May 3-26.

This year there will be seven world premieres - including Wembley, which was written in the aftermath of the 2024 riots.

There will be 120 events and exhibitions during the festival period, 45 of which will be free.