Royal Exchange boss unveils new plays two years after damaging censorship row

A theatre boss has promised to channel the “pioneering spirit of Manchester” and be “brave and fearless” as she unveiled a new season of work, two years after a deeply damaging censorship row.

Selina Cartmell, the artistic director of the Royal Exchange in Manchester, revealed details of 2027-28 productions that include a retelling of the Munich air disaster and a modern Stockport-set version of the ancient Greek myth Phaedra.

Cartmell took over at the theatre two years ago, during what was one of the biggest crises in its 50-year history.

A production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was cancelled in a dispute over one of the production’s songs, which referenced transgender rights and contained the phrase “free Palestine”.

There were accusations of censorship, although an independent review did not find that but did highlight “significant leadership failures”. The play’s director, Stef O’Driscoll, talked of a growing “fear-driven decision-making in the arts”.

Cartmell told the Guardian it had been “a very challenging time” for the theatre, and the board at the time took “full responsibility”. All the review recommendations were now in place, with “artists firmly back at the centre of the theatre”, she said.

“It was an incredibly complex and difficult period of our time, but we are absolutely, as a theatre, moving forward into the next chapter.”

Cartmell said she was interested in northern stories with an international reach, adding that risks would be taken – “all part of the pioneering spirit of Manchester”.

She said the theatre would reopen its 100-seat studio space next year, which has remained closed since the Covid pandemic.

She said the closure had been a “real loss to Manchester” and reopening it would allow the theatre “to nurture local talent and to tell really urgent stories”.

The first studio show since March 2020 will be Talking to Boys, by Abbi Greenland, which explores “what happens to one woman’s mind through 14 conversations with the men in her life”.

The reopening will coincide with a weeks-long closure of the main 750-seat in-the-round space for refurbishment, including the seats, which have been in place for 30 years.

Season highlights in 2027 will include the world premiere of a new play by Olivier and Tony award-winning Simon Stephens, The First Blue Thing.

Directed by Cartmell, it is a reimagining of the Greek myth of Phaedra – a princess who falls in love with her stepson, leading to terrible consequences – and will be set in Stephens’s home town of Stockport.

There will also be a new production of Guys and Dolls, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the soul singer and West End star Beverley Knight.

In 2028, 70 years after one of the defining moments in the history of Manchester – the Munich air disaster – the theatre will stage the world premiere of an adaptation of David Peace’s novel Munichs.

Munichs brings to life the story and aftermath of the air crash that killed 23 out of 44 passengers, including eight Manchester United players, three of its staff and eight journalists.

It has been adapted for the stage by Ben Power and will, Cartmell said, explore the “religion of football” and how a club, a community and a country were all changed by events on 6 February 1958.

The Royal Exchange is one of the UK’s leading regional theatres and has a proud history, Cartmell said, “of doing things differently, dancing to their own drum beat.

“I think Manchester has that spirit as well, that punky, edgy feeling of going: right, we need to take risks. We need to act with courage. We need to be brave and fearless. And this is the moment … Manchester, as we know, is going through an extraordinary moment in time.”