When Manchester embraced Mr. Shakespeare …….

It might seem a daft title, but it perfectly sums up the story of how William Shakespeare came to mean so much to Manchester over the last two centuries.

Mr Shakespeare's window

And for those who aren’t fully aware of the connection between the city and the playwright, there is an excellent exhibition at the Central Reference Library which offers up the story.

It runs until May 30th and in the words of Ian Nickson who collated the exhibition it is “the story of how seven personalities transformed Manchester into a global centre of Shakespearean theatre in the Victorian era and reveals present-day evidence of the city’s innovative engagement with the works of Shakespeare.

These seven people operated in diverse fields - business, religion, theatre, architecture, academia, politics - but were united by their appreciation of Shakespeare’s cultural value and, as if imitating the seven bees atop Manchester’s coat of arms, they collaborated to create an urban, libertarian, distinctively Mancunian interpretation of Shakespeare’s works”

They include “local businessman John Knowles who commissioned the Theatre Royal on Peter Street in 1845 and installed a marble statue of Shakespeare above the main entrance, early evidence of a desire to link Manchester with high culture

The actor-manager Charles Calvert who produced spectacular, historically accurate and commercially successful revivals of Shakespeare’s plays which, by appealing to all sections of society, developed into a ‘one-nation Shakespeare’ with global appeal.

Mr. Shakespeare and the Theatre Royal, 2024

In 1875, Calvert’s revival of Henry the Fifth was exported to the United States, prompting two New York impresarios to organise the fastest crossing of the continent by train as a publicity stunt and launching the career of the first global Shakespearean celebrity, George Rignold".

To these can be added Henry Irving who in 1860 came to Manchester and resurrected his career. He had who arrived as a failing actor, and his time in Manchester set him on the road to becoming the Victorian era’s most celebrated tragedian.

But that is where I shall stop because where would the fun be in just reading about the exhibition when you can come along and enjoy if for yourself and discover the other four notable people who in their own different ways brought the Bard to the city and whose influence is still here to uncover?

For more details please contact:

r. Ian Nickson. Honorary Research Fellow, University of Manchester, ian.nickson-2@manchester.ac.uk

Kattie Kincaid, Project Lead for the Shakespearean Garden,  kattiekincaid@hotmail.com

Location; Manchester Central Library, St Peter's Square, Manchester, M2 5PD

Pictures; the Shakespeare Window, 2025, courtesy of Ian Nickson, and Mr. Shakespeare at the Theatre Royal, 2024, from the collection of Andrew Simpson