The boss of Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre is to step down after the controversy over the cancellation of a play last year
The decision by Stephen Freeman, who had been chief executive at the venue since 2018 followed the findings of an independent review into the last-minute cancellation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Royal Exchange which pointed towards “significant systemic organisational and leadership failures” at the venue.
The review found that the management’s actions did not constitute censorship. However, it concluded that failure to maintain robust support during a period of leadership change, led to multiple issues on the play and its ultimate cancellation.
Following the review Co-chairs afshan d’souza-lodhi and Jo Taylor said:
“While we are reassured that the review did not support accusations of censorship, we recognise that more needs to be done to support artists and other partners, especially in a period of leadership transition. The Board apologises to all those involved in the production, whose work was not able to be seen, as well as to staff and audiences for these shortcomings. We are embarking on a process designed to reinstate our organisation’s core values, culture and guiding principles, led by senior management with support from the Board. Change of this scale takes time in order to be truly impactful, but this work has already started and we commit to prioritising it so that significant progress can be made over the next six months. The Board’s commitment to ambitious and courageous work at the Royal Exchange remains undiminished.”
Stephen Freeman told the BBC that he was standing down “for personal reasons linked to the impact of the last few months”, adding he was “comforted that the report has concluded that censorship was not at play”.
He added: “I wish to make it clear that this is my decision, and mine alone.
“More needs to be done to support relationships between artists and institutions. This is where our collective power exists to make a real difference in the world, and I want to focus my attention on this area in the future.”
