Redlands, the tale of the infamous Rolling Stones drugs bust just near Chichester back in 1967, brings the Chichester Festival Theatre main-house summer season to a conclusion.
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00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt,
00:05Griep Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.
00:07Lovely, as always, to speak to Justin Odie-Bair,
00:10Artistic Director at Chichester Festival Theatre
00:12and the Director of Redlands.
00:14And I can't remember the last time I looked forward
00:17to a Chichester Festival Theatre show quite so much.
00:19It's the story of the infamous Rolling Stones
00:22drugs bust in 1967, just near Chichester
00:25and its implications.
00:27And goodness, it sounds such an interesting play
00:30and impactful too.
00:31It's a really important moment in our history, isn't it?
00:36Yes, it is.
00:37I mean, that's really why I wanted to programme it
00:39because it's the most Chichester story imaginable.
00:43So many people in Chichester remember the event
00:45or have heard legend of it.
00:46And obviously, you know, the place,
00:50Redlands Lane still exists, et cetera, et cetera.
00:52Yes, but it's also a story of national significance
00:58because it did lead to a change in how rock and roll
01:03and the counterculture was considered nationally.
01:05So it's a brilliant thing.
01:06It does two things.
01:07It enters the story locally, but it has huge resonance.
01:12And I just have to say, the play is wonderful fun.
01:17You see the whole story through the eyes and perspective
01:20of a 17-year-old Nigel Havers,
01:23whose father it was, Michael Havers,
01:24who later becomes the Attorney General,
01:26who was the lawyer who defended,
01:28who took the case on and defended the Rolling Stones.
01:32And it just, it's joy and it's fun.
01:37It's got a real, it's about society, society then,
01:41but I think society now and about questions
01:44of kind of press and morality and, you know,
01:47what we consider acceptable as a society, but it is joyful.
01:54But the really interesting thing is
01:56that the Establishment Order terribly misunderestimated
02:01the degree of support that there would be for the Stones.
02:04Yeah.
02:05That's what sent the shockwave, wasn't it?
02:08Yeah, absolutely.
02:09I mean, when they was, I'm spoiling the story,
02:12I'm not really, but when they were convicted,
02:16when they were convicted,
02:18there were huge protests and vigils
02:20and suddenly this enormous wave of public support.
02:25And the famous moment after the kind of popular uprising
02:31is the editorial in the Times the next day,
02:33where it talks about crushing Mick Jagger
02:35like a butterfly on the wheel,
02:37the quote from Alexander Pope.
02:38And from the Times, no less.
02:41And from the Times, no less.
02:42And suddenly everyone starts to see rock and roll
02:46and the Rolling Stones, personally, in a different light.
02:50And it's amazing.
02:51Yeah, it's just an amazing moment in our culture.
02:54Absolutely.
02:55And the lovely thing your playwright, Charlotte,
02:56was telling me is you have personally managed
02:59to secure permission to use four
03:01Rolling Stones originals in the piece.
03:03That is something, isn't it?
03:05Yes, we're really over the moon to be able
03:10to bring some of Mick and Keith's original compositions
03:15to life for our audiences here in Chichester.
03:20And that's about the feeling of what we want to create
03:24is the feeling that you're back in 1967.
03:27And everything we do in the show is about that.
03:30The fashion, the clothes, the costumes, the design.
03:35And actually, I think it's worth saying
03:37that Chichester in the 1960s,
03:42our theatre was built in 1962.
03:45And it was a very revolutionary theatre design at the time.
03:49And we are really leaning into all the amazing things
03:52that were happening in Chichester in the 1960s.
03:54Isn't that funny that the theatre is exactly as old
03:56as the Rolling Stones are as a band?
03:58Yeah.
03:59Yeah, it feels like a great bit of synergy.
04:02Brilliant.
04:03Well, really lovely to speak to you.
04:04Congratulations on the play.
04:06Looking forward to it.
04:08Can't wait for you to see it, Phil.
04:09Thanks.