Rachelle Diedericks’ happiest of love affairs with Chichester Festival Theatre continues with The House Party by Laura Lomas, an adaptation of Miss Julie by August Strindberg which offers the opening play in this year’s summer season in the Minerva.
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00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now the
00:05 opening play in the Minerva season is going to be fantastic. It's The House Party, a modern
00:11 adaptation of Schoenberg's Miss Julie, but one of the most exciting things is it brings
00:16 back to Chichester Festival Theatre for the third time in three years, Rochelle Diedrich's.
00:21 Now you are so excited to be back, aren't you?
00:26 Yeah, I love Chichester and everyone's so lovely and it's just, I'm so excited to be
00:31 there when it's going to be warm as well. So it's just going to be a little holiday.
00:35 And Chichester has given you some fantastic opportunities, hasn't it? But what is it about
00:39 Chichester that you enjoy in terms of just being here?
00:45 Well, it's exciting work. Everything that I see there is amazing. And it's the artistic
00:56 directors of that building have just done such an amazing job of programming and I just
01:03 get excited about coming back.
01:06 And I think you were in one of the most exciting things I've ever seen in more than 30 years
01:14 of watching things at the Festival Theatre. Your debut at the Festival Theatre was Our
01:18 Generation just slightly coming out of the pandemic, which was an absolutely impactful
01:23 piece, wasn't it? And must have been superb to be part of.
01:27 Yeah, it is. And it's like, the reach of OurGen has been insane. I worked at a theatre a couple
01:35 of weeks, a couple of months ago, and it's been like two, three years now, nearly, since
01:40 OurGen finished. But like, people are still stopping me, like in Tesco's being like, I
01:45 saw OurGen with my kid and he's like, two years old now. And like, we loved it. And
01:50 I'm like, oh my goodness, that is...
01:51 And now I'm doing the same. I mean, it was fabulous, wasn't it? It was a brilliant piece.
01:55 Yeah, I love it. Think about it like every other day, really. Yeah, because it's just
02:01 that it was so fun.
02:02 But it was so appropriate for the moment, wasn't it? And it sounds like this is going
02:06 to be appropriate for the moment too. This is again, targeting new audiences, fresh audiences,
02:11 bringing them into the theatre. Why is this going to be a cracking show? What do you think
02:16 of it?
02:17 Well, I think it's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be an exciting night at the
02:22 theatre. It's immersive. So we're hoping that people really embrace that and like, you know,
02:30 that they're up for a party, but also a party that just is mental. So yeah, I think it's
02:39 a representation of young people going through some like really heavy stuff and navigating
02:44 that. So yeah, it's exciting.
02:49 Fantastic. Well, it opens in the nervous season. Really lovely to see you again and speak to
02:55 you again and looking forward to your fourth in four years, next year, whatever that will
02:59 be.
03:00 I hope, I hope. A yearly stage is there. I'd love it.
03:08 Thanks so much.
03:10 Thank you, Phil.