Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester announces new season
Royal Exchange Theatre. Photo by Andrew Brooks.
Following the theatre’s 50th anniversary this year, Artistic Director and Co-CEO Selina Cartmell has announced a season of eight ambitious productions alongside the reopening of the theatre’s Studio space.
The season will open with Brian Friel’s 20th-century masterpiece about corroding morals and fragile self-belief, Faith Healer. Welsh director Emma Baggott’s interpretation is a deeply personal celebration of Celtic storytelling culture, masterfully reflected in the writing. It will run from 20 March to 18 April 2027.
Reopening the Studio space from 8 April to 8 May 2027 will be Talking to Boys, the shortlisted 2025 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting play directed by Sam Pritchard. In Abbi Greenland’s sharp, fragmented play, we look at what happens to one woman’s mind through fourteen conversations with the men in her life – from the school yard right through to the empty nest. She doesn’t want to be shaped by men. But is it possible to avoid it?
Written by Mancunian playwright Daisy Miles, winner of the 2025 Bruntwood North West Prize for Original New Voice, R Lady’s will have its world premiere in the Studio. Running from 13 May to 5 June 2027, the play is set in Lady’s Catholic Primary School in Stockport, where children’s play in the schoolyard is pushed to the limits with disturbing dynamics, delicate dispositions and a desire for control.
Created and directed by Jennifer Jennings and Phillip McMahon, RIOT is both party and political, which acts as a love letter of hope to the future and a clarion call on the state of the world. After 10 years of international success, this UK premiere runs from 27 May to 6 June 2027 in the Theatre. RIOT stars Panti Bliss, Emmet Kirwan, Lords of Strut and The Sirens and will feature a surprise special guest each night.
As well as that, there’s The First Blue Thing, a contemporary take on the Greek myth of Phaedra will be staged in the Theatre in a World Premiere by Artistic Director Selina Cartmell from 18 June to 25 July 2027.
Olivier Award-winning West End actor and queen of British soul music Beverley Knight will shine as Beatrice in Michael Buffong's take on Much Ado About Nothing, transporting Shakespeare to the island of Trinidad just after the end of the Second World War in a society on the cusp of transformation.
Natalie Abrahami directs a brand-new production of Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls for the theatre’s festive season. Directed by Natalie Abrahami and running from 19 November 2027, the worlds of criminals and Christians collide through one high stakes bet and two tales of love against all odds.
Ben Power adapts David Peace's deeply moving retelling of the Munich Air Disaster and its aftermath, giving a voice to the survivors and victims, the families and friends, the players, journalists and supporters. Forensic yet profoundly personal, this is an account of a club and a city forever changed. Directed by Selina Cartmell, this world premiere marks 70 years since the disaster and looks at the lives shaped by one fateful day and asks, “how do any of us go on?”. The World Premiere of Munichs will be staged in the theatre from 28 January to 12 March 2028.
Priority tickets for the 2027-28 season are on sale now and general tickets will be available at 12 noon BST Thursday 22 October. Tickets are available from royalexchange.co.uk
