Housed in one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, you need only step inside to begin a journey into the world of the Royal Exchange Theatre. Come on in, see what makes us tick and share in our excitement for the future.

We believe theatre is for everyone, and we're passionate about proving it. For almost forty years the Royal Exchange Theatre has been a hub of superb storytelling for Manchester and the UK, and there are even more exciting times ahead!

Resembling a lunar space craft set down amidst the glass domes and towering columns of this Grade II listed building, the Royal Exchange is the largest Theatre in the round in the country, seating up to 750 people on three levels.

Did you know our seven-sided Theatre module is actually suspended from four huge columns? In fact, only the stage area and its ground-level seating rest on the floor of the Great Hall - a necessary architectural feature for a module that weighs 150 tonnes!

A 360° performance space means every audience member sees the performance from their own perspective, and with no seat further than nine metres from the stage, even epic productions are an intimate experience. Since 1976, the Royal Exchange has welcomed some of the greatest names in British theatre, film and television, from Vanessa Redgrave, Helen Mirren, Pete Postlethwaite, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant, to Brenda Blethyn, Robert Lyndsay, Tom Courtenay, Cush Jumboand Maxine Peake. We continue to discover and nuture exciting new talent, launching a new generation of theatre-makers onto the British arts scene.