Royal Exchange theatre unveils new plays two years after censorship row
Royal Exchange artistic director Selina Cartmell has announced the Manchester theatre's 2027-28 season of new plays, two years after a censorship row triggered by a cancelled A Midsummer Night's Dream production.
Royal Exchange theatre unveils new plays two years after censorship row
What the new season includes
The Royal Exchange's 2027-28 line-up mixes new writing with familiar titles. Simon Stephens, an Olivier and Tony award winner, contributes the world premiere of The First Blue Thing, directed by Cartmell herself. The play reimagines the myth of Phaedra, a princess who falls in love with her stepson, and sets it in Stephens's home town of Stockport.
- A new production of Guys and Dolls
- A Midsummer Night's Dream starring soul singer and West End star Beverley Knight
- The First Blue Thing, Stephens's Stockport-set take on Phaedra
- The world premiere of an adaptation of David Peace's novel Munichs, staged in 2028
Munichs reaches the stage 70 years after the Munich air disaster, one of the defining moments in Manchester's history. The 1958 crash killed 23 of 44 passengers, including eight Manchester United players, three staff and eight journalists. Adapted for the stage by Ben Power, it will explore what Cartmell calls the "religion of football".
The backdrop: a cancelled show and its aftermath
Cartmell arrived at the theatre two years ago, in the middle of one of the biggest crises in its 50-year history. A Midsummer Night's Dream had been cancelled in a dispute over a song referencing transgender rights and containing the phrase "free Palestine". Accusations of censorship followed, though an independent review did not find censorship and instead highlighted "significant leadership failures". The cancelled play's director, Stef O'Driscoll, spoke of growing "fear-driven decision-making in the arts".
Cartmell described it as "a very challenging time", adding that the board at the time took "full responsibility". All review recommendations are now in place, she said, with "artists firmly back at the centre of the theatre".
It was an incredibly complex and difficult period of our time, but we are absolutely, as a theatre, moving forward into the next chapter.
Studio space reopens
The theatre will also reopen its 100-seat studio space next year, which has remained closed since the Covid pandemic. Cartmell called the closure a "real loss to Manchester" and said reopening it would let the theatre nurture local talent and tell urgent stories. The first studio show since March 2020 will be Talking to Boys by Abbi Greenland, about what happens to one woman's mind through 14 conversations with the men in her life.
Refurbishment and Cartmell's ambitions
The studio reopening coincides with a weeks-long closure of the main 750-seat in-the-round space for refurbishment, including seats that have been in place for 30 years.
For Cartmell, the season reflects a theatre with a history "of doing things differently, dancing to their own drum beat". She said Manchester is "going through an extraordinary moment in time", that she is interested in northern stories with international reach, and that risks would be taken - "all part of the pioneering spirit of Manchester".
We need to act with courage. We need to be brave and fearless. And this is the moment.
The season moves ahead with the Munichs premiere in 2028, 70 years after the crash of 6 February 1958 that, in Cartmell's words, changed a club, a community and a country.
