The Royal Shakespeare Firm has tapped John Chief to play the title function in its upcoming stage adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “The BFG.”
The manufacturing, tailored by Tom Wells (“The Kitchen Sink,” “Jumpers for Goalposts”), represents a collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Firm, Chichester Competition Theatre and the Roald Dahl Story Firm.
The manufacturing follows Sophie, a younger orphan who’s whisked away to Large Nation by the Massive Pleasant Large, the place she discovers that different giants are terrorizing kids worldwide. Collectively, Sophie and the BFG devise a plan to cease the human-eating giants and save kids in all places. The story was beforehand tailored by Steven Spielberg as a movie in 2016.
Chief, who beforehand appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Firm in “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and “The College for Scandal” in 2024, brings in depth theater credentials to the function. His resume consists of “Wuthering Heights,” “Peter Pan” and “Warfare Horse” on the Nationwide Theatre, “A Monster Calls” at The Previous Vic and “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” on the Bridge Theatre.
“I’m completely thrilled to be enjoying such an iconic character who means a lot to so many individuals,” Chief. “Everybody has their very own image of the BFG, so it’s actually thrilling (and a bit surreal!) to assist convey him to life on stage.”
Royal Shakespeare Firm co-artistic director Daniel Evans, who’s directing the manufacturing, known as the casting course of “a large endeavor in so some ways,” noting that discovering the appropriate actor was “a necessary piece of the puzzle.”
“John Chief brings immense heat, generosity and humility to the function — all important qualities for our BFG,” Evans added. “He additionally has a gleaming and vivid creativeness. John will probably be working alongside a extremely expert crew of puppeteers as a part of a solid of eighteen.”
The artistic crew consists of puppetry designer and director Toby Olié, set designer Vicki Mortimer, costume designer Kinnetia Isidore, lighting designer Zoe Spurr, video designer Akhila Krishnan, illusions designer Chris Fisher, composer Oleta Haffner, sound designer Carolyn Downing, and choreographer and motion director Ira Mandela Siobhan.
The present will bow on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon for a 10-week run from Nov. 25, 2025, by means of Jan. 31, 2026, earlier than transferring to Chichester Competition Theatre from March 9-April 11, 2026.
