Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party is the new main house offering for the Manchester Royal Exchange's spring season (April 4-May 17).
At the height of 1970s suburbia, social class and ambition, Beverly Moss, the Hostess with the Mostess, is holding a cocktail party. The latest tracks are on the record player, the drinks are flowing and there’s even a bowl of olives. As the night moves on and the party gets thick with sexual tension, Beverly’s exclusive gathering descends into chaos.
The cult classic has been much seen elsewhere, but never before at the Exchange. It will be directed by award-winning theatre, opera and film director Natalie Abrahami. The cast is still to be announced.
The theatre also plans an as-yet-unspecified collaboration with the biennial Manchester International Festival, and its pop-up theatre The Den will set up shop during the summer in Tameside and Leigh.
The cast (pictured below) has also been announced for the forthcoming Caryl Churchill double-bill Escaped Alone/What If If Only (February 7-March 9), directed by the theatre's former artistic director, Sarah Frankcom.
Annette Badland (Heartstopper, Ted Lasso, Doctor Who) is in both Escaped Alone and What If, joined by Maureen Beattie (Yerma, My Fair Lady), Souad Faress (The Archers, Game Of Thrones) and Margot Leicester (King Charles III, Coronation Street).
Completing the cast are Bea Glancy (Game of Thrones, The Book Thief), Danielle Henry (Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Twelfth Night) and Lamin Touray (Waterloo Road, A View From The Brigge). Eighteen members of the theatre's Elders Company will also feature in the production.
The Den pop-up mobile theatre space, will be returning to Tameside and Leigh for festivals designed for each community, building on relationships already established while forging new partnerships,
Selina Cartmell, the Royal Exchange’s new creative director, is developing her first programme of work to mark the theatre’s 50th anniversary in 2026, and launching Autumn 2025.
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