Blockbusting 2027-28 at Royal Exchange, Manchester
Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre - currently celebrating its 50th anniversary - is looking forward to its 51st season, with a list of eight new productions and the reopening of its 100-seat Studio space for 2027/28.
West End star Beverley Knight - this week in Sylvia at Salford's Lowry; Olivier-award winning Stockport-born playwright Simon Stephens, ground-breaking Talawa Theatre Company and award-winning Irish company THISISPOPBABY all feature.
Artistic director and co-CEO Selina Cartmell said: “As the Royal Exchange Theatre Company begins its next chapter, we will honour the radical spirit that has defined this extraordinary theatre, and indeed Manchester, and go courageously into the future.”
The season includes Brian Friel's classic Faith Healer (March 20-April 18, 2027). Rated one of the 100 most significant plays of the 20th Century, a contemplation on faith and doubt, illusion and reality, deception and genius.
Talking To Boys, by Abbi Greenland (Studio, April 8-May 8). This premiere marks the reopening of the Exchange's small Studio space and is a shortlisted 2025 Bruntwood Prize finalist. It reveals what happens to one woman’s mind through 14 conversations with the men in her life. A funny perspective on relationships between men and women in all their hope, peril and complexity.
R Lady's, by Mancunian playwright Daisy Miles (Studio, May 13-June 5). Another premiere, this time winner of the 2025 Bruntwood North West prize for Original New Voice. Set in Our Lady's Catholic primary school in Stockport, where childs play in the school yard is pushed to the limits with disturbing dynamics.
Riot (May 27-June 6). Also a premiere, from Irish company THISISPOPBABY. Created and directed by Jennifer Jennings and Phillip McMahon, it features a night of wild theatre, sizzling circus, comedic acrobatics, heart-breaking monologues, radical dancing, Tayto crisps, and a surprise nightly guest. A big night out, but with a delicious twist.
Presented as part of the 2027 Manchester International Festival, the last Exchange production before summer will be the premiere of The First Blue Thing by Simon Stephens, directed by Exchange artistic director Selina Cartmell (June 18-July 25). The Tony-award-winning playwright creates a contemporary take on the Greek myth of Phaedra, a story of temptation and shame, tragedy and passion. Take a seat by the kitchen table in a huge, cluttered Edwardian house in Stockport. Piles of books and worn furniture are all around, and the smell of a Sunday roast, red wine and resentment hang in the air...
Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (September 17-October 24) will be a co-production with Talawa Theatre Company, directed by: Michael Buffong. Featuring Beverley Knight as Beatrice, the production transports Shakespeare to Trinidad after the end of World War II - and a society on the cusp of transformation.
The big Christmas show will be Frank Loesser's immortal romantic comedy Guys and Dolls
(November 19-January 9, 2028). This new production of the Broadway classic, last seen at the Exchange in 2017, will transport audiences to Christmas on the streets of 1950s New York City. The worlds of criminals and Christians collide through a high-stakes bet and two tales of love against the odds - not to mention wonderful tunes such as Luck Be a Lady and Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat.
The final show of the season will be Munichs, based on the titular novel by David Peace and adapted by Ben Power (January 28-March 12, 2028). This premiere of the moving story of how many members of the year's triumphant Manchester United "Busby Babes" lost their lives in a snowy take-off from Munich as they made their first trip to play European football. The play gives a voice to the survivors and victims, the families and friends, the players, journalists and supporters. Directed by Selina Cartmell, the show marks 70 years - on February 6 - since the disaster.
:: The Royal Exchange’s Studio, reopening next April, closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic and the announcement signals a welcome return. The initial programme will feature three months of in-house, produced work and space and support for the next generation of talent for the rest of the year. Future opportunities for emerging northern theatre makers will be announced next autumn. The reopening will allow the 750-seat main house to undergo a schedule of auditorium refurbishment, including new seating.
:: Also announced is a different form for the Bruntwood Prize - famously the nation's playwriting competition with the largest financial rewards.
The open-to-all Bruntwood Prize is to be replaced from next year by a regional competition, the Bruntwood Prize for North West Playwriting, which it is hoped will put northern voices on a global stage, The competition will focus on writers from the North West, open only to those of all and any experience born or living in the area.
As before, entrants will submit a full length, original and unproduced script and the prize will be judged by a selection of prestigious producers, directors and playwrights. Winners and runners-up will receive money to fund their work, and significant development opportunities and support, dramaturgical support and join the community resident in the reopened Studio. Full entry criteria and details will be released in the autumn of 2027.
Chief executive of Bruntwood, Chris Oglesby, said: "As both the Royal Exchange and Bruntwood celebrate our 50th anniversaries, we’re proud to continue the legacy of the prize with a renewed focus on supporting playwrights and stories from the North West, where Bruntwood has its roots."
