World premiere of Jane Austen's Persuasion to open at Manchester Royal Exchange

Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre has announced that a new production of Jane Austen's Persuasion will be part of the venue's new season.

Adapted by James Yeatman and Jeff James and directed by James, the show will run 25 May to 24 June as part of the second half of the theatre's 40th anniversary year.

Persuasion is Austen's final completed novel and tells of the young Anne Elliot's chance at love and marriage.

David Greig's version of Aeschylus' The Suppliant Women will run from 10 March to 1 April 2017. A co-production with the Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum and Actors Touring Company, Ramin Gray's staging will include a 50-strong female chorus.

From 13 April, the Royal Exchange will present Jo Davies' new production of Shakespeare'sTwelfth Night.

The final main house presentation of the season will be a new piece on the subject of fatherhood. Entitled Fatherland, the show is conceived by Frantic Assembly's Scott Graham, Underworld's Karl Hyde, and playwright Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Punk Rock, Herons). Fatherland runs from 1 to 15 July.

The studio season includes the world premiere of How My Light Is Spent, a Welsh-set drama by Alan Harris, playing from 24 April to 13 May 2017. The piece won the Judges Award in the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2015 and is a co-production with Sherman Theatre and Theatre by the Lake.

No casting has been announced at present.