Royal Exchange Theatre

Royal Exchange Theatre, purpose-built repertory theatre located within the old Great Hall of the Royal Exchange in Manchester. The Royal Exchange building, the third successive exchange in Manchester, was completed in 1871, and was extended in 1921. During World War II the building was damaged but the exterior walls remained intact, and the interior was rebuilt. The exchange was a grand building, housing a large main hall together with other spaces on a number of floors. Its original purpose was as a meeting place for businessmen, especially those associated with the cotton trade, and although shops and offices moved into part of the premises, trading continued in the Great Hall until 1968.

It was in the 3,000-sq m (3,500-sq yd) Great Hall that the Royal Exchange Theatre Company established first a temporary theatre, and then, in 1976, a permanent theatre built in a modern style in steel and glass, supported by pillars within the Hall. The opening production within the new 700-seater theatre-in-the-round auditorium was The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and subsequent directors and actors who worked at the Royal Exchange included Adrian Noble, Nicholas Hytner, Robert Lindsay, Helen Mirren, Patricia Routledge, and Rufus Sewell.

In 1996 the Royal Exchange was severely damaged when an IRA bomb exploded nearby, devastating Manchester city centre. The theatre was rebuilt following a £23 million grant from the National Lottery and reopened in December 1998 with a revival of the Manchester classic, Hindle Wakes, by Stanley Houghton, the play that had been running when the bombing took place. The restored theatre is similar in design but less austere, with advanced technical facilities and a new 120-seat studio space for experimental work. Its inaugural programme included appearances by Tom Courtenay in King Lear and David Threlfall in Peer Gynt, by Henrik Ibsen, as well as new plays by Peter Barnes and Jim Cartwright.