VIDEO: Watch Chloe Bond talk to Phil Hewitt/SussexWorld about Kensuke’s Kingdom at The Hawth

It goes into The Hawth Studio from Thursday, March 30-Saturday, April 1 after an intense 11 to 12-day rehearsal period.

It tells the tale of Michael, a young boy who goes on a fantastic sailing adventure with his parents around the world. Their dream becomes a nightmare when the boat is hit by a terrifying storm and Michael is thrown into the sea. Washed up alone on an island in the Pacific, he fights for survival before making a startling discovery... the island is already home to one extraordinary man: this is Kensuke's Kingdom.

Chloe, who lives near East Grinstead, said: “I started working at the Hawth in 2021 in the summer. I was assistant director on Robin Hood and I have been lucky enough to stay on for every in-house production since. Last July we did The Wind In The Willows and it was really well received. It was really great and we had lots of lovely feedback and lots of lovely support from the local schools.”

Now Chloe is directing professionally for a second time: Kensuke’s Kingdom, based on the book by Michael Morpurgo: “When does an emerging director stop being emerging director! It's not really a training scheme as such but I do feel like I've really grown as a director during my time at the Hawth and it has been brilliant.”

Chloe had contemplated a career as an actor: “Obviously director and actor are totally different professions and I thought I wouldn't be able to handle the nerves of being an actor but actually it doesn't get any better when you are director! I still get just as nervous but I love unpicking a story. I really love storytelling and working with actors. As an actor you're responsible for your own character and that's your part of it all but as a director obviously you have the overall vision and I really love working in collaboration. I think you have to find out what works for each particular play but having done most of my work at the Hawth, I do think that it has tailored my approach to directing. I just want to get started straight away and have a quite short intense rehearsal period. For me the textual analysis gets done when you are putting the play on its feet rather than when you are sitting chatting around the table.

“This particular book was released in 1999 and lots of primary schools are still studying it. I grew up reading Michael Morpurgo. My sister had the whole collection… well, a shared collection between us! I just think he is such a master storyteller and all of his books have these parallel themes like war and friendship and what it means to have a home. For children it is touching all these important and meaningful themes like friendship and family and so on and they're all wrapped up in these wonderful stories. You can't beat a great story!”