Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre has cancelled the full run of its production of A Midsummer Night's Dream after a couple of postponements.
The production was due to open on Friday 6 September with a press night on Wednesday 11 September and run until 12 October. However, while the Manchester Evening News published an article stating that the run began on the Friday but the Tuesday performance was cancelled hours before the show was to begin, The Stage has written that theatre management raised "concerns about some of the creative decisions that were due to be included in the play" during a run-through the week before opening and therefore it had been postponed to Monday 16; the theatre's web site was amended with the new dates but with no mention of the postponement.
The theatre hasn't responded to any of our requests for information over the last few days, but The Stage said that it issued a statement blaming "ongoing technical issues" for the postponement.
By Thursday, there were reports that unions Stage Directors UK and Equity had become involved to resolve issues between the show's company and the theatre's management to ensure the production could go ahead, but on Saturday 14, The Stage published an 'exclusive' article stating that the whole production, which was to have been director Steph O'Driscoll's Royal Exchange debut, would be cancelled and all tickets refunded.
The statement provided exclusively to The Stage gave no reason, only that, "there have been a number of issues with the production. Every effort was made to get the show on." All details of the production have been removed from the theatre's web site with no reference to the cancellation.
Manchester Evening News also reported that the whole production had been cancelled, referring to "ongoing technical reasons" and also an injury to a cast member, which isn't mentioned in any quotes from the theatre's statement, which BTG hasn't seen in full, or by The Stage.
MEN later said that some theatregoers had not received notification of the cancellation and turned up at the theatre "to find it 'locked up' with the 'lights off'". One person who had travelled from Wales told the MEN, "a number of audience members (myself included) arrived at the Royal Exchange to find it locked up, lights off, no staff, no sign on the door, no e-mail received to explain the situation."