The early part of the New Year marks the second half of Manchester Royal Exchange's 40th anniversary.
It will use the opportunity to take inspiration from its beginnings in 1976, a time of social and political upheaval.
So in 2017, the Exchange re-stages a production of Aeschylus’ The Suppliant Women, one of the world’s first plays, from March 10 to April 1.
Director Jo Davies makes her Exchange debut with Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night from April 13 to May 20.
Liz Stevenson returns to direct Alan Harris’s How My Light Is Spent, winner of a Bruntwood prize in 2015. It’s about loneliness and hope, and is a co-production with Sherman Theatre and Theatre by the Lake from April 24 to May 13.
Then Jeff James, one of the UK’s most original young theatre makers, adapts and directs the world première of Persuasion, a re-telling of Jane Austen’s masterpiece.
Finally, Fatherland is a vivid portrait of 21st-century England co-commissioned with Manchester International Festival, Frantic Assembly, Lyric Hammersmith and LIFT.
Following its one-off theatrical re-staging of Ken Loach's Cathy Come Home at the Barbican in July, Cardboard Citizens’ new touring production, Cathy, is at the Exchange from January 12 to 14.