Audience numbers are up year on year by more than 46,000,
with people experiencing Royal Exchange produced work across the UK as well as
in Manchester, at festivals and other venues including Latitude, the Edinburgh
Fringe, Shakespeare’s Globe, Theatertreffen in Berlin
and community venues in the North West.
YOU, THE AUDIENCE -
the Exchange’s year-long audience collaborative adventure which began this
season - weaves through the programme for Spring Summer 2015. An epic
conversation and a celebration of audiences, it explores the special
relationship between the work that is made and the people it is made for.
The company is currently gathering a remarkable collection
of opinions and ideas from some of the 2,000 people who helped to kick-start
the project at the recent Fun Palace Open Day. The Spring Summer Season’s
events will include a weekend of outdoor theatre and A NIGHT AT THE THEATRE, a
giant sleepover in the module and the Great Hall.
Launching
in Spring 2015, OPEN EXCHANGE will
offer a series of attachments, master-classes and other development
opportunities as part of the Exchange’s commitment to the next generation of
artists and theatre makers.
Artists
will have the chance to explore, play and collaborate with mentoring and
support from professional teams and access to new rehearsal spaces.
The new season is the second under the leadership of Sarah Frankcom as the theatre’s sole
Artistic Director and is a mix of classics reinvented by the next generation of
theatre-makers and world premieres for emerging voices.
She said: “I am really excited about the wide range of new
work, artists, collaborations and conversations we will share with audiences in
2015 as we reinvent what our theatre is, and what it might be.”
The season includes a co-production of a classic adaptation
directed by rising star Ellen McDougall;
a much loved play re-worked by returning favourites Told by an Idiot; first outings for two Bruntwood Prize winners, a collaboration with the Manchester International Festival 2015 and a Royal Exchange Young Company
collaboration with poet and novelist, Jackie
Kay.
The season launches with Olivier-nominated Ellen McDougall directing Jo Clifford’s stripped-back,
contemporary adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel ANNA KARENINA – a Royal
Exchange Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse co-production.
This is the Exchange’s second collaboration with WYP following
the huge success of SWEENEY TODD in Autumn 2013. ANNA KARENINA runs in The Theatre from Thursday 19 March to Saturday
2 May 2015 and transfers to Leeds on Wednesday 13 May.
Anna is the envy of St. Petersburg society.
Glamorous and admired, but locked in a loveless marriage, her sudden and
passionate love affair with Count Vronsky turns her world on its head and puts
at risk everything she has ever known.
Olivier-nominated
director Ellen McDougall makes her Royal Exchange
debut with this stripped-back and contemporary version of one of the greatest
novels ever written.
She received an Olivier nomination for her 2010 production
of IVAN AND THE DOGS (ATC, Soho, UK tour and Rustaveli Theatre, Georgia). Other
recent credits include TELLING TALES (Almeida); PHILOCTETES (Unicorn) SHOWS 1
and 2 (Secret Theatre) for Lyric Theatre Hammersmith; SPRING AWAKENING and
IDOMENEUS (Gate Theatre) and NOT NOW BERNARD (Unicorn Theatre and touring).
Playing alongside ANNA
KARENINA, 2013 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting winner THE ROLLING STONE by Chris
Urch receives its world premiere
in The Theatre from Tuesday 21 April
to Friday 1 May 2015.
Also directed by Ellen
McDougall – and with the same company of actors - it tells a very different
story of lovers at odds with society.
Dembe and Sam have been seeing each other for a while. They
should be wondering where this is going and when to introduce each other to
their families. But they’re gay and this is Uganda and the consequences of
being discovered will be violent and explosive.
The season continues with a blisteringly funny reboot for Arnold Ridley’s THE GHOST TRAIN which runs in The Theatre from Thursday 14 May to Saturday
20 June 2015.
The production is presented in association with the
internationally acclaimed theatre company Told
by an Idiot (previous Royal Exchange credits include YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH
YOU and TOO CLEVER BY HALF) who bring their trademark wit, flare and theatrical
invention to this classic ghost story.
The production is presented in association with the
internationally acclaimed theatre company Told
by an Idiot (previous Royal Exchange credits include YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH
YOU and TOO CLEVER BY HALF) who bring their trademark wit, flare and theatrical
invention to this the classic ghost story.
A group of passengers are left stranded at a
remote railway station, facing the prospect of a night in the waiting room. But
when the old stationmaster warns them about the phantom train that haunts the
tracks after dark, the evening starts to take one chilling turn after another.
Told by an Idiot Artistic
Director Paul Hunter, who directs
the production, said: "THE GHOST
TRAIN is not normally the kind of play that would be produced in the round.
The challenge of staging action that would normally happen off stage and of
using every inch of that extraordinary space will be really thrilling."
2013 Bruntwood Prize Winner YEN by Anna Jordan –
which plays in The Studio from Wednesday
18 February to Saturday 7
March – explores a childhood lived without boundaries and the
consequences of being forced to grow up on your own.
It tells the story of sixteen-year-old Hench and
thirteen-year-old Bobbie who live alone with their dog Taliban, playing
Playstation, watching porn; surviving. Occasionally their chaotic mum Maggie
visits, sometimes she passes out on the front lawn. But when Jenny knocks on
the door, the boys discover a world far beyond what they know, a world full of
love, possibility and danger.
Anna
Jordan’s play was commended for its ‘beautiful
empathy, and a humanity which stood out to all the judges’ by Chair of the Judges, Dame Jenni Murray.
The production is directed by Ned Bennett. Previously a resident trainee director at the Royal
Court, his recent credits include SUPERIOR DONUTS (Southwark Playhouse),
MERCURY FUR (Old Red Lion) and PIGEONS (Royal Court schools tour).
The new season will also see the Royal Exchange Theatre and Manchester
International Festival collaborate on a new piece of theatre for MIF15. It will be staged in The Theatre
from Friday
3 July to Saturday 1 August 2015.
It follows on from the acclaimed MIF / RET co-production of THE MASQUE OF
ANARCHY - a highlight of MIF13. Further details will be announced in the New
Year.
A full Spring Summer programme in The Studio is also yet to
be announced but a major highlight will be BRINK
- a Royal Exchange Young Company
collaboration with poet and novelist, Jackie
Kay.
Presented by the Young Company and directed by the Royal
Exchange’s Associate Artistic Director Matthew
Xia, the show will run in The Studio from Thursday 26 March to Saturday
28 March 2015 and asks lots of question such as “What brings you to the
brink in your life?” and “When you are so close to the edge - do you take the
plunge or retreat?”
Public Booking for
the new season opens on Monday 24 November 2014.
For further
information, please contact JOHN GOODFELLOW (Press & Communications
Manager) on 0161 615 6783 / john.goodfellow@royalexchange.co.uk.
ROYAL EXCHANGE
THEATRE SPRING SUMMER 2015 SEASON
The Royal Exchange Theatre presents:
YEN
By Anna Jordan
World Premiere
Directed by Ned Bennett
The Studio
Wednesday 18 February to Saturday 7 March 2015
PRESS NIGHT:
THURSDAY 19 FEBRUARY at 7.30pm
The Royal Exchange Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse
present
ANNA KARENINA
By Leo Tolstoy
Adapted by Jo
Clifford
Directed by Ellen
McDougall
The Theatre
Thursday 19 March – Saturday 2 May 2015
PRESS NIGHT: TUESDAY
24 MARCH at 7.30pm
Royal Exchange Theatre presents
THE ROLLING STONE
By Chris Urch
World Premiere
Directed by Ellen
McDougall
The Theatre
Tuesday 21 April
to Friday 1 May 2015
PRESS NIGHT: WEDNESDAY
22 APRIL at 7.30pm
Told by an Idiot and the Royal Exchange Theatre present
THE GHOST TRAIN
By Arnold Ridley
Directed by Paul
Hunter
The Theatre
Thursday 14 May – Saturday 20 June 2015
PRESS NIGHT:
TUESDAY 19 MAY at 7.30pm
Royal Exchange
Theatre / 2015 Manchester International Festival Collaboration
Details to be announced
The Theatre
Friday 3 July
to Saturday 1 August 2015
PRESS NIGHT: TBC
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment