Tag Archives: Royal Exchange Theatre

Writer/Director: Dan Mallaghan Reviewer: Sam Lowe The Royal Exchange have done it again. Providing a stage for yet another smart, sensitive and stunning one-act drama as part of their Spring/Summer season. Wrestling the Walrus is unsurprisingly the winner of the 2018 Hodgkiss Award. It’s impeccably and awe-inspiringly acted out by Nik Wood-Jones and Leanne Rowley as Mog and Gracie. 154 ...

Writer/Performer: Urielle Klein-Mekongo Director: Gbolahan Obisesan Reviewer: Sam Lowe We are witnessing a future star in the arts industry, her name is Urielle Klein-Mekongo. China Plate present Yvette, a one-woman show with new music about societal pressures young girls face, a stolen childhood, and living with a perturbing secret. This is based on a true story. The central character Evie ...

Writer: Harold Brighouse Adaptor: Tanika Gupta Director: Atri Banerjee Reviewer: May Mellstrom Harold Brighouse’s 1916 classic comedy Hobson’s Choice, set in a Salford cobbler’s shop in 1880, last graced the stage of the Royal Exchange in 2003, mere months before playwright Tanika Gupta’s adaptation, featuring a present-day family of Ugandan Asian tailor’s, premiered at the Young Vic Theatre in London.  ...

After twenty years of working at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, Sarah Frankcom has announced that she is stepping down as the theatre’s Artistic Director. Frankcom joined the Company as Literary Manager in 1998; ten years later she was made Joint Artistic Director and in 2014 took up her current position as sole Artistic Director. Frankcom is leaving the Royal Exchange ...

Writer: Arthur Miller Director: Sarah Frankcom Reviewer: Jo Beggs If Willy Loman were living in America in 2018 he wouldn’t seem out of place. A salesman whose thirty odd years of service to capitalism has left him with nothing but a zero-hours contract and no health insurance to deal with an escalating mental health problem. He’d probably be starting to ...

To many, actor Don Warrington is still fondly remembered for his role as Philip Smith in the classic 1970’s sitcom, Rising Damp in which he appeared alongside Leonard Rossiter and Frances de La Tour. In recent times he has attracted legions of fans for his appearances in TV programmes including Death In Paradise and Strictly Come Dancing. As a stage ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Adapted by: Jeanie O’Hare Director: Elizabeth Freestone Reviewer: Jim Gillespie  The Royal Exchange Theatre acknowldege that this retelling of the royal backdrop to the Wars of the Roses makes use of original text by William Shakespeare, drawn from his history plays. The perspective is that of the wife of Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou, who made up ...

Writer: Maxine Peake Director: Bryony Shanahan Reviewer: Andrea Allen Queens of the Coal Age tells the remarkable tale of four women who responded to the threat of their local pit closure and therefore their local community, by going down the pit and occupying it. It’s 1993, and this is a true story. Anne, Lesley, Dot and Elaine aren’t to be messed ...