Video: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Teased for Chichester Festival Theatre 2026 Season
The production relocates Shakespeare's comedy to a 1990s Sussex rave scene.
Chichester Festival Theatre unveiled a teaser video for its upcoming production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, offering an early glimpse at what the theatre is billing as its 2026 season finale. The clip promises a reimagined take on Shakespeare's comedy, framed around the tagline that "it's Sussex in the 1990s" and that "magic is real."
A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most performed comedies, following young lovers, meddling fairies, and a troupe of amateur actors whose fates become tangled through enchantment in the woods. Chichester's version transplants that world into a decade-specific setting described in the video as "the party to end all parties," suggesting a rave-inflected staging of the fairy realm rather than a traditional forest backdrop. Munya Chawawa is attached to the production, according to the video description.
The show is set to run at the Festival Theatre from September 18 through October 17, 2026, closing out Chichester's season. Tickets start at £10, with £5 Prologue seats available for theatregoers aged 16 to 30.
The announcement follows a busy year for Chichester Festival Theatre, which recently staged My Fair Lady in the same venue. The new teaser gives no further plot detail beyond its 1990s setting, leaving the full scope of the production's design and casting for a later reveal.
