Half a century of Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre ….. the exhibition

Yesterday I dropped into the major new exhibition celebrating fifty years of storytelling through costume, craft and performance at the Royal Exchange Theatre.

It’s a sobering thought that I have pretty much lived almost all those 50 years at the place.

It’s a place I have proudly shown off to family and friends, as well as dining in its restaurants and of course watched a heap of performances ranging from Shakespeare to musicals and on one wonderful occasion saw our Josh perform in a youth production.

And over the years has been the backdrop to meet ups and quite solitary moments so I had to slide along and enjoy this new exhibition which is entitled “Mythic Reinvention celebrating fifty years of storytelling through costume, craft and performance at the Royal Exchange Theatre.

Responding to the unique architecture of our Victorian Great Hall, the exhibition transforms the art of storytelling into an immersive space where the mythic and modern collide.

 Curated from our extensive costume archive that is home to over 25,000 individual pieces, past productions will echo into the present and reveal how stories continue to reflect societal change and deeper human truths through a new lens.

Explore up close the craft of designing and making theatre costumes, where threads of character and stories connect across five decades, through different genres and generations. 

Step inside the inner workings of the theatre’s costume department and hear from the artists who created some of the Exchange’s most iconic productions. Each costume reveals a story of imagination, skill and collaboration, offering a rare glimpse into the artistry that has shaped the Royal Exchange Theatre.

Part exhibition, part installation, Mythic Reinvention invites audiences to immerse themselves in the evolving mythology of storytelling, exploring how costume reimagines stories across time and how those stories continue to define, reflect and shape who we are today.

Mythic Reinvention: An exhibition celebrating 50 Years of Costume and Craft is open from 16 September until 15 November 2026”.

But be careful as “opening hours will vary throughout the exhibition due to other performances and events taking place in the theatre".

I turned up just a little before the doors opened at midday, but the bonus was a conversation with two people from north Manchester also waiting to go in and that is always a bonus.

Location; Mythic Reinvention, Royal Exchange, St Ann’s Square

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2026

*Mythic Reinvention, Royal Exchange https://www.royalexchange.co.uk/event/mythic-reinvention-exhibition/

Out in the Northern Quarter …… the poster

I became a regular at the Royal Exchange Theatre some time around 1977, just a year or so after it opened with its futuristic looking structure.

Back then I got a season ticket and while there were sometime productions which I didn’t enjoy there were plenty more that were fun, electrifying and totally memorable.

Some were high theatre while others like Leaping Ginger and a heap of farces were the best anecdote to a bleak week in the middle of winter or a rainy June.

We tried to get tickets for the latest musical but left it too late, leaving me just to reflect on some of those earlier productions and wonderful afternoons in the bar.

Location; Tib Street, Manchester

Picture; the poster, 2023, and Vintage Royal Exchange, 2001, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Vintage Royal Exchange …….

Now I never learn and continue to be very careless with dating and recording where I took pictures.

Digital photography has made it heaps easier, but when I wander through the back catalogue I can be stumped.

So, these I know are the Royal Exchange, and were taken with my first digital camera which cost an arm and a leg.

And that puts them at the start of this century soon after I swapped smelly chemical photography for the future.

But the exact year had eluded me, until I noticed the posters for a production of Hedda Gabler, and a search showed that the Royal Exchange performed the play in October 2001, courtesy of a review in the Guardian.

The play scored four out of five, and while I was tempted to quote from the review I shall just leave you to follow the link. *

Looking at those two images from 21 years ago I am struck by how little the Royal Exchange has changed, and indeed looked much the same when I first started going in the 1970s.

Sadly I don't have any images of the theatre from the 1970s.

Nor did I keep any of the programmes from what was a few years of exciting theatre from the classics to a memorable night watching Robert Lindsay in Leaping Ginger.

And that is pretty much it.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Vintage Royal Exchange Theatre, 2001, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Hedda Gabler, Lyn Gardiner, October 31st, 2001, Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2001/oct/31/theatre.artsfeatures1