Antigone Exits closes Chichester's Minerva season with 75-minute premiere
Chichester's Minerva season has closed with Antigone Exits, a modern retelling of Sophocles' Antigone by Nina Segal.
The production is directed by Jeff James. It plays the Minerva Theatre from 26 September to 17 October. It is listed as the closing production of this year's Minerva season, according to WhatsOnStage. The start date was first published when Chichester set out its 2026 season in February.
The play is a world premiere, meaning this is its first staging anywhere. Chichester Festival Theatre describes it as a modern adaptation that brings Antigone into the present day. In plain terms, a familiar ancient story is reset in the now. That kind of adaptation keeps the characters and conflict but changes the setting and language.
The production features a cast of seven performers. Nina Cassells plays Antigone, the young woman at the centre of the story. Anushka Chakravarti plays Ismene, Antigone's sister. Max Bennett plays Creon. Melody Chikakane Brown plays Tiresias. The seven-strong company keeps the staging compact, with a small group carrying the full tragedy.
Alex Lowde created the stage design. James directs after recent directing work that includes Shooting Hedda. The credits bring together Segal's new script, James's direction and Lowde's design. For a new play, that trio of writer, director and designer shapes much of what an audience sees and hears.
The running time is 75 minutes. It is performed without an interval. It runs straight through. For anyone planning an evening, that means a continuous show of just over an hour. No break. No second act.
That shape matters. A short evening asks for concentration from the first line. It also makes for a brisk night at the theatre. In and out in little more than an hour.
What makes this stand out is the combination of newness, brevity and placement. A world premiere always carries extra attention because no one has seen it before. A 75-minute play leaves little room to pause. Closing a season adds further weight, with the last production setting the final impression before the programme moves on.
