Chichester Festival Theatre has unveiled its winter 2026/27 season featuring a mix of touring productions, new stagings, and returning favourites. The season offers a rich programme across its Festival and Minerva Theatres, including award-winning plays, musicals, and special events.

The Festival Theatre will host Paul Hendy’s The Last Laugh from 3 to 7 November, followed by Heathers the Musical from 10 to 14 November. Concurrently, the Minerva Theatre presents The Gang of Three, a political drama by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky, during the same November dates.

From 17 to 21 November, a new staging of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, adapted by Simon Stephens from Mark Haddon’s novel, will run in the Festival Theatre. That week, the Minerva Theatre will also showcase The Silence and the Noise, a play by Tom Powell that won the 2021 Papatango Prize, directed by Papatango artistic director George Turvey.

Tracy-Ann Oberman will lead a production of Noël Coward’s Present Laughter from 24 to 28 November. The Christmas programme features annual concerts from 1 to 5 December with the Band of His Majesty’s Royal Marines Collingwood and Chichester Cathedral Choir.

Hey! Christmas Tree, written by Vicki Berwick from a Michael Morpurgo poem, returns to the Minerva Theatre from 5 to 27 December, with direction by Dale Rooks and the original cast reprising their roles. Chichester Festival Youth Theatre’s musical adaptation of Peter Pan, with music by George Stiles and lyrics by Anthony Drewe, runs from 14 to 30 December under the direction of Lucy Betts.

The season extends into January with New English Ballet Theatre’s The Nutcracker, created by Valentino Zucchetti, from 6 to 10 January. From 19 to 23 January, Daisy Goodwin’s By Royal Appointment stars Jane Asher, Samantha Womack, David Robb, and Matthew Cottle at the Festival Theatre, while Katherine Senior’s Spitfire Girls plays at the Minerva Theatre.

February brings the world stage premiere of Before I Go to Sleep, starring Giovanna Fletcher and based on SJ Watson’s novel, at the Festival Theatre from 2 to 6 February. Simultaneously, The Reckoning, written by Anastasiia Kosodii and Josephine Burton and based on witness testimonies collected by The Reckoning Project, will play in the Minerva Theatre.

Other February highlights include A Tale of Two Cities, adapted by Terence Rattigan and John Gielgud and directed by Michael Fentiman, from 9 to 13 February at the Festival Theatre, alongside Pentabus’s Birdcatcher in the Minerva Theatre. Birmingham Rep presents A Thousand Splendid Suns, adapted by Ursula Rani Sarma from Khaled Hosseini’s novel, from 16 to 20 February.

The season closes at the Festival Theatre with James Graham’s Punch, directed by Adam Penford, running from 23 to 27 February. The play is based on Jacob Dunne’s book Right from Wrong and explores his journey after a fatal act of violence.

The Minerva Theatre will also present various events including Lost Dog’s Juliet & Romeo in November and a series of comedy, music, and theatre shows throughout November and January. Family productions The Lion Inside and Who Let the Gods Out? follow in February.

Chichester Festival Theatre’s Prologue scheme will continue, offering £5 tickets for audiences aged 16 to 30 for selected productions throughout the season.