After more than a year of waiting, we are delighted to announce our new programme which we hope will provide an ‘Epic Embrace’ to our audiences and communities, as we finally return on the 23rd of June.

Bursting with life, the programme celebrates the remarkable, and unapologetically rips apart ideas of love, self-discovery, protest, endeavour, faith and resilience, all of which have been under intense focus this year. Please read through to learn more and see your invitation to join us as we reopen our doors.

Two productions will run in rep this autumn. Stuart Slade’s warm and funny Bruntwood Prize Award-Winning show GLEE & ME directed by Nimmo Ismail lets us explore love, friendship, family and the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit, alongside Katori Hall’s Olivier Award-Winning play, THE MOUNTAINTOP. Directed by Joint Artistic Director Roy Alexander Weise this visceral, powerful, and important drama imagines the eve of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in this brand new version. 

We’re excited to be returning to Leigh this Summer with THE DEN FESTIVAL as part of LOCAL EXCHANGE and our first DISRVPT event will seek to disrupt the equilibrium, reimagine and reignite the Exchange’s Great Hall. The 15th of September also marks 45 years since the Royal Exchange opened its doors to the public. We will be celebrating this anniversary with everyone who has supported it across the years and I’ll be in touch soon with more information, as we’d love for you to be a part of this special anniversary.

We cannot wait to welcome you back through our doors and look forward to working with you for the next Bruntwood Prize!

Stuart Slade says 

‘The past year has been the hardest of my life, both personally and professionally – like most people working in the creative industries, the ‘rona has felt like an endless slo-mo wrecking ball. Over the past year we’ve all lost so much of what matters. It’s been so hard.

But, in the middle of all this, the Royal Exchange and the Bruntwood Prize have always been there for me – unstintingly supportive, overwhelmingly kind, and utterly committed to coming back stronger than ever before. They’ve been like a lifebuoy in a storm – in a way that I’ll never, ever forget.

When the Royal Exchange announced the new season, and I saw Glee & Me featured in such an incredible lineup of work, I’m completely unashamed to say I did a little ugly cry of pure unadulterated joy. It really is a dream come true to work with such a fantastic creative team at such a fantastic theatre.

I can’t wait to see the play coming to life over the next few months. Ah theatre, I’ve missed you so much!’

Could you be our Lola? Open Call Casting