Last night we had the pleasure of going to watch one of Shakespeare’s most infamous plays of tragedy, loyalty, love, betrayal, murder and madness – Hamlet. In a production that would, in Shakespeare’s day, have been performed by an all-male cast, Maxine Peake gave an outstanding and impassioned performance in her title role, keeping alive…
Dark new play Crocodiles is set to have its world premiere at the Royal Exchange Theatre on Wednesday 1st October. Written by Lee Mattinson (who has story-lined for Coronation Street as well as having written for a host of other productions including the Bush Theatre, Soho Theatre, The National Theatre, Paines Plough and BBC 3),…
In a bold re-imagining of Shakespeare’s most iconic work, Hamlet will open the Autumn/Winter 14/15 season on Thursday 11th September 2014. BAFTA nominated Maxine Peake (The Village, Hancock and Joan) will lead the cast in this stripped back, fresh and fast-paced production which reunites her with Royal Exchange Artistic Director Sarah Frankcom. Having had huge…
Twenty stories make up the Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the fourteenth century. One of these, The Pardoner’s Tale, is set to be performed in the Studio theatre over a ten day period, in a new, lively adaptation that has been co-produced by Unicorn Theatre and Tangere Arts. With a…
Harry McEntire takes the lead role in a new production of Billy Liar, a classic tale of northern life in the 1960s. Keith Waterhouse’s original 1959 novel has been adapted for the stage by Waterhouse himself, alongside Willis Hall. With previous Royal Exchange credits that include Winterlong (which also played at Soho Theatre) and Punk…
In collaboration with renowned director Mark Storer, who also worked on the Roundhouse’s groundbreaking production The Fat Girl Gets a Haircut And Other Stories with a cast of 12-17 year olds, Puffball builds on that success with a production that has come about as the culmination of a major year-long project working with young people…
A collaboration between award-winning writer Ravi Thornton, award-winning director Benji Reid and critically acclaimed composer Minute Taker, brings us the hard-hitting and heartbreaking musical HOAX My Lonely Heart. HOAX is one of hundreds of poems that were written by Roabbi (Rob), the younger brother of Ravi Thornton. Sadly, in 2008, after a long battle with…
The Last Days of Troy, written by Simon Armitage, whom most people will know for his award winning poetry, takes Homer’s classic poem, The Iliad and fuses it with Virgil’s Aeneid, to create a truly dramatic depiction of the story of the final days of the Trojan War. Making her first appearance for the Royal…
Last night, we had the pleasure of watching one of Shakespeare’s best comedies, Much Ado About Nothing, brought to the Royal Exchange Theatre by Maria Aberg, who is making her Royal Exchange directing debut. Originally set in 16th century Messina, Italy, a somewhat modernised production brought the play into a twentieth century, post-war setting as…
