The Board of The Royal Exchange Theatre accepts the findings of the independent review by people make it work, commissioned into the last-minute cancellation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (AMND) in 2024.
The review found that RET 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 AMND and its ultimate cancellation.
We are committed to embedding artistic voices at the centre of our organisation, and creating a space in which everyone can explore their creative freedom. The Board takes full responsibility for these failings and have commenced a long-term action plan in response to the report’s recommendations. Trustees have apologised to AMND creatives and company and RET staff.
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.”
Summary of findings and recommendations: people make it work – an independent review into the cancellation of the production, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, September 2024
“As the RET board looks towards the 50th anniversary in 2026, our recommendations provide the theatre with a unique opportunity to reaffirm a commitment to bold, brave and ambitious programming and to turn systemic challenges into catalysts for positive change.
RET has a history of producing bold, brave and ambitious work, but its handling of AMND revealed significant systemic organisational and leadership failures rather than the deliberate suppression of political content. The lack of senior artistic leadership and properly documented producing processes created conditions where legitimate concerns about artistic developments in the production became entangled with allegations of censorship.
The principal recommendation of our review is that RET embarks on a programme of change wherein it restates its commitment to artistic innovation and daring, and publicly acknowledges the leadership failures that led to the cancellation of AMND.” – people make it work
Two principles are core to this programme of change:
- Rebuilding creative leadership and producing capacity
The theatre’s artistic leader is fully empowered and properly resourced to reinstate the theatre’s distinctive artistic voice and is supported by a well-defined producing pathway and team with clear reporting lines to the senior leadership. - Innovation and daring
The theatre restates its commitment to artistic innovation and daring with the goal to maintain its mission and to ensure a support and accountability structure that allows bold, brave and ambitious projects to thrive.
The change programme should have the following areas of focus:
- Review how executive and artistic leaders work together
- Enhanced board governance for better oversight
- Restructured communication systems and internal networks
- Improve operational systems and review resource allocation
- Crisis management for major production incidents
- Training and development
