JADAR

★★★★★

Mythic Reinvention is a major new exhibition celebrating fifty years of storytelling through costume, craft and performance at the Royal Exchange Theatre.

It’s already been quite the year for the Royal Exchange Theatre, which just celebrated its 50th birthday, on the opening of this exhibition. The new Artistic Director and Co-Chief Executive, Selina Cartmell, was tasked with breathing new life into the theatre for its 50th anniversary, and she has more the succeeded with a bold, brilliant vision.

The actual theatre of the Royal Exchange sits inside a sort-of spaceship in the middle of the Great Hall; it’s a jarring juxtaposition that somehow works. In the current context, it captures the timelessness of the space. Whilst the Great Hall is absolutely beautiful, it usually operates just as a foyer. Cartmell, however, had the genius idea to utilise the vast space. Her opening production, a 30th anniversary revival of Jim Cartwright’s Road, was fully immersive, with the cast wandering around the Great Hall before the show.

The Royal Exchange have done something similar with Mythic Reinvention, which is curated by Leslie Travers. Responding to the unique architecture of the Victorian Great Hall, the exhibition transforms the art of storytelling into an immersive space where the mythic and modern collide.

The space has been utilised wonderfully, with costumes placed everywhere from bar tops to up on the metal structure of the auditorium itself. The promotional image, in which a model stands on the frames of the auditorium, is not just an artistic advertisement or bait and switch; it’s a pretty accurate representation of the exhibition itself – it just comes without the model!

Curated from their extensive costume archive that is home to over 25,000 individual pieces, past productions echo into the present and reveal how stories continue to reflect societal change and deeper human truths through a new lens.

Sadly, many costumes perished in the 1996 IRA bombing, which devastated the theatre shortly before its 20th anniversary. Cartmell also marked the 30th anniversary of that bombing with the brand-new play Even These Things, which closed 30 years to the date of the bombing.

Mythic Reinvention allows visitors to explore up close the craft of designing and making theatre costumes, where threads of character and stories connect across five decades, through different genres and generations. Visitors can step inside the inner workings of the theatre’s costume department and hear from the artists who created some of the Exchange’s most iconic productions. Each costume reveals a story of imagination, skill and collaboration, offering a rare glimpse into the artistry that has shaped the Royal Exchange Theatre.

Part exhibition, part installation, Mythic Reinvention invites audiences to immerse themselves in the evolving mythology of storytelling, exploring how costume reimagines stories across time and how those stories continue to define, reflect and shape who we are today.

At the press preview, we heard from both Cartmell and Travers, who clearly felt very passionately about the artistic brilliance of this exhibition and what it means to the theatre and the city in general.

The durability of the costumes really is remarkable. They have been incredibly well-preserved. It is hard to believe that some of them are half a century old. This is a testament to how well they have been looked after, and valued and cherished, by the Royal Exchange.

There is a real accessibility to this exhibition, in that none of them are behind glass or railings. Whilst one should not touch the costumes, visitors can get right up close to study the detail. Each piece has a descriptive notice, with credits for the associating play, and interesting anecdotes. Some costumes sit on their own whilst others are in relevant clusters, such as costumes for Juliet from two different productions of Romeo and Juliet.

The Royal Exchange is very versatile with its programming and direction, welcoming very different productions and very different directors. Whilst some productions of classic texts adhere to historical authenticity, albeit still finding a way to say something new (such as relocating Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations to British India), other productions are completely contemporised (such as the aforementioned Manchester-set production of Romeo and Juliet in 2023). This is evident when looking at these costumes, and others.

I believe that the Juliet costumes came from the 1992 and 2023 productions, over 30 years apart, though the play was also performed in 2005, starring Andrew Garfield as Romeo and Gugu Mbatha-Raw MBE as Juliet, before they were superstars. The exhibition also features some objects such as old programmes, celebrating some of the stars who have played here, from recurring star Maxine Peake to Cush Jumbo OBE.

The exhibition allows visitors to see into the art-making process, from revealing hidden compartments to emit blood, to a design workshop with costumes in various stages of completion, reference books, and information taken from actors (though their measurements are discreetly redacted).

As the Royal Exchange is an in-the-round space, actors always have their backs to some people in the audience, meaning the backs of costumes must be just as complete as the fronts. This exhibition references this a few times. Near the now-closed Studio, there is a pretty ordinary looking costume worn by a knight, but when you walk past it, you will see that the back has been hit by a couple dozen arrows. Near the small bar, there are male and female costumes situated at either side of a mirror. This references the central plot point of Orlando: the character switches gender. A two-way mirror, the dress is reflected, whilst it can also be seen from the other side – allowing its front to be appreciated whether you look directly at it, at its reflection, or through the glass. On the balcony, a gown from The Skriker, which starred Peake, rotates whilst being surrounded by a semicircle of mirrors, allowing one to fully appreciate its majesty.

Mythic Reinvention is an incredibly well-thought-out exhibition with excellent attention to detail – just like the costumes it showcases.

Mythic Reinvention: An Exhibition Celebrating 50 Years of Costume and Craft runs at the Royal Exchange Theatre (The Great Hall) until November 15.

Photo: Ros Kavanagh