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Blethyn heads Exchange new season

October 13, 2008

A major premiere for next year’s Manchester International Festival, devised and directed by Neil Bartlett, and a return for double Oscar nominee Brenda Blethyn in a new play by Edna O’Brien spearhead an exciting new Spring – Summer 09 season at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre.

The season begins with Macbeth - Shakespeare’s towering tragedy of ambition, mystery, murder and revenge – from Wednesday 25 February to Saturday 11 April 2009. It marks the  first Royal Exchange mainhouse production for exciting young Olivier Award nominated guest director Matthew Dunster whose recent RET Studio credits include Love And Money and You Can See The Hills.

George Bernard Shaw’s first play Widowers’ Houses - a hilarious yet scathing look at the ethics of making money - continues the season from Wednesday 15 April to Saturday 9 May 2009. This new production is directed by Royal Exchange Artistic Director Greg Hersov.

Internationally heralded stage and film actress Brenda Blethyn returns to the Exchange from Wednesday 13 May to Saturday 13 June in the world premiere of Haunted – an extraordinary new memory play about love and betrayal by award-winning writer Edna O’Brien. Poetic and emotional, the play tells the story of Mr Berry, his wife and his passion for a young lover. Brenda Blethyn was seen earlier this year in the Royal Exchange’s critically acclaimed production of The Glass Menagerie which has also just finished a hugely successful national tour and has been nominated for two 2008 TMA Awards.

Continuing the season, Manchester audiences get a second chance to see the hit show from the 2007 Manchester International Festival. The Royal Exchange presents the MIF production of The Pianist from Wednesday 17 June to Saturday 27 June 2009.

Directed by acclaimed theatre auteur Neil Bartlett from an original concept by Mikhail Rudy, this thought-provoking version of a story was first made famous in an Oscar-winning film by Roman Polanski. Based upon the memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman, it is the harrowing story of one man’s time in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi Occupation.
Acclaimed British theatre director Neil Bartlett, whose work has been seen at the Lyric Hammersmith, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, brings together actor Peter Guinness as narrator, and award-winning concert pianist Mikhail Rudy for this thought-provoking journey through one man’s extraordinary story.

Bartlett also takes the helm for final show of the season, a Royal Exchange – Manchester International Festival co-production. He directs and devises

A world premiere and prestigious curtain-raiser for the 2009 Manchester International Festival this extraordinary new show will be devised by director and actors in rehearsal at the Exchange and tell a colourful story set in the vivid world of North West Bingo Halls.

The director is already promising to re-design the Exchange’s famous in-the-round auditorium – removing some of the seats and replacing them with Bingo Hall tables and chairs to allow some of the audience to play along as part of the action. Rumours are also rife as to casting, with an “iconic North West comic” said to be lined up to play the central role of “Bingo Caller”.

In The Studio at the Royal Exchange the season will see links developed with exciting and original artists from the North West that it has supported in the past.

The first of the two collaborations is a new children’s production Little Leap Forward by Guo Yue from 28 May to 13 June 2009. The show is presented in partnership with Horse and Bamboo Theatre Company.

And in July (dates to be confirmed) the Studio will collaborate with Weeding Cane on 0.0008. Conceived by Sonia Hughes and first shown as a scratch performance in BLUE - the Royal Exchange Studio’s showcase of new work - 0.0008 is a delicately balanced intimate performance which delves into the minute details of our lives against the immense backdrop of the universe.

Audiences can also look forward to some of the most imaginative small- scale national touring companies as part of The Studio’s 2009 programme.

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