Theatre of the United Kingdom rise of satire in 1960s Britain. The Chichester Festival Theatre was Britain's first modern thrust stage theatre. It was inspired by the Festival Theatre of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival launched by Tyrone Guthrie in the Canadian city of Stratford, Ontario. The inaugural Artistic Director of the Chichester Festival was Sir Laurence Olivier, and it was at Chichester that the first National Theatre company was formed. Chichester's productions would transfer to the National Theatre's base at the Old Vic in London. The Theatres Act 1968 abolished the system of censorship of the stage that had existed in Great Britain since 1737.
The Old Vic to the stage. Since 2015 Matthew Warchus has been Artistic Director of The Old Vic. His debut season opened in September 2015 with Warchus's production of a new play about education, "Future Conditional" by Tamsin Oglesby. On 24 October 2017 The Old Vic announced its bicentenary season. The theatre celebrated its 200th birthday on Friday 11 May 2018 with a free performance of Joe Penhall's Mood Music, featuring Ben Chaplin. Productions with Kevin Spacey as artistic director include: 2011 season 2012 season 2013 season 2014 season 2015 season Productions with Matthew Warchus as artistic director include: 2015-16 season 2016-17 season