Chichester trio’s departure leaves venue leaderless

Published Wednesday 3 August 2005 at 11:05 by Alistair Smith

Chichester Festival Theatre will lose its three artistic directors this autumn, leaving one of the UK’s most highly-subsidised companies with two months to find a new creative leadership and raising questions over the future of the venue founded by Laurence Olivier in 1962.

Following the anouncement that Ruth Mackenzie, Martin Duncan and Steven Pimlott will leave when their current three-year contracts expire, Arts Council England has insisted that it and the theatre board want a new head in place by October, in time to programme for next summer’s festival.

Former National Theatre and Royal Opera House chief Genista McIntosh has been drafted in to advise on the recruitment. However, Richard Russell, director of external relations for ACE, South East, admitted that no adverts had yet been placed and the venue had not decided yet whether it was looking for a single artistic director or another team.

He commented: “It’s obviously a critical moment for Chichester but we want to be hopeful that the theatre is both artistically and financially successful. It is in a much more stable position than it was in 2002.”

CFT recently became ACE’s fourth highest funded theatre organisation after the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Exchange, Manchester. It will now receive £1.45 million for 2005/6, £1.49 million for 2006/7 and £1.53 million for 2007/8.

When Mackenzie, Duncan and Pimlott joined CFT in 2002, mounting debt threatened the venue’s future. The directors launched their Back to the Future scheme that year with a view to returning to ensemble theatre, as originally envisaged by Olivier.

Since their arrival ACE funding has increased dramatically. In the last three seasons it has received more than £6 million, with another £4.5 million promised over the next three seasons.

Mackenzie has insisted that it was the perfect time for the trio to leave and an entirely straightforward decision. She added: “Leaving at a good time is always an art. This is the last year of our three-year contract and we’ve got this record-breaking settlement from the arts council. The council has been amazing and it is a real tribute to the staff, ensemble and creative teams who have worked so hard.

“It’s important that we leave the theatre in a good state. This year’s festival will see 5/11- one of the largest new plays in the UK this year - and it is a great way to end our tenure.”

However, despite insistences that the directors have achieved what they set out to do when they joined in 2002, the most recent financial report from the theatre shows that the recovery is not yet complete.

It reports of disappointing ticket sales in the 2003/4 season and a “further serious deterioration of its trading position in the 2004 festival arising from a shortfall in box office income”.

The venue has also fallen behind with plans for a £1.8 million education centre, which it had hoped to start this autumn. There is still much money left to raise for the scheme and management admits there is no chance of the work beginning on time.

Anthony Field, theatre consultant and a former board member of the CFT, said that he was not surprised the three directors had decided to leave. He explained: “In fact, I was somewhat surprised when they took the job on. I wonder if they really knew how tough the job was going to be - it is the most difficult theatre to run in the country. Even with all the arts council funding they have received, they were still making a loss.”