page_title: Royal Exchange, Manchester
section_title: Theatres
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Exchange, Manchester / Theatre / Theatres
caption_attribution_description: English: The circular theatre pod which sits in the hall of the Royal Exchange Building in Manchester, England
context_page_description: The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal Exchange Theatre and the Royal Exchange Shopping Centre.
  The Royal Exchange was heavily damaged in the Manchester Blitz and in the 1996 Manchester bombing. The current building is the last of several buildings on the site used for commodities exchange, primarily but not exclusively of cotton and textiles.
context_section_description: The theatre features a seven-sided steel and glass module that squats within the building's Great Hall. It is a pure theatre in the round in which the stage area is surrounded on all sides, and above, by seating. Its unique design conceived by Richard Negri of the Wimbledon School of Art is intended to create a vivid and immediate relationship between actors and audiences. As the floor of the exchange was unable to take the weight of the theatre and its audience, the module is suspended from the four columns carrying the hall's central dome. Only the stage area and ground-level seating rest on the floor. The 150-ton theatre structure opened in 1976 at a cost of £1 million amid some scepticism from Mancunians.
  The theatre can seat an audience of up to 800 on three levels, making it the largest theatre in the round in The World. There are 400 seats at ground level in a raked configuration, above which are two galleries, each with 150 seats set in two rows.
  The Studio is a 90-seat studio theatre with no fixed stage area and moveable seats, allowing for a variety of production styles (in the round, thrust etc.) It acts as host to a programme of visiting touring theatre companies, stand-up comedians and performances for young people.
caption: The exterior of the circular theatre pod in the Great Central Hall
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