The Bruntwood Prize and The Royal Exchange

Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre Company transforms the way people see theatre, each other and the world around them. Our historic building, once the world’s biggest cotton exchange, was taken over by artists in 1976. Today it is an award-winning cultural charity that produces new theatre in-the-round, in communities, on the road and online.

Exchange remains at the heart of everything we make and do. Now our currency is brand new drama and reinvigorated classics, the boldest artists and a company of highly skilled makers – all brought together in a shared imaginative endeavour to trade ideas and experiences with the people of Greater Manchester (and beyond).

The Exchange’s unique auditorium is powerfully democratic, a space where audiences and performers meet as equals, entering and exiting through the same doors. It is the inspiration for all we do; inviting everyone to understand the past, engage in today’s big questions, collectively imagine a better future and lose themselves in the moment of a great night out.

The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting aspires to produce prize winning plays, and there is a long legacy of prize-winning plays going on to be produced in the UK and abroad, with 24 productions appearing in 38 UK venues and as far afield as Australia, the USA and Canada since 2005. Partner co-productions mean that plays have gone on to other venues following their Royal Exchange Theatre run, including the Bush Theatre, the Lyric Hammersmith and Sherman Cymru.

The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting also works in partnership with the Royal Court Theatre, The Kenyon Institute, Ohio and the National Theatre New Work Department, who all provide winning writers with development opportunities.

Just a few productions from the history of the Bruntwood Prize include;