// BBC ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS — MODA & SOCIETÀ
Costume exhibition celebrates 50 years of city's 'spaceship-like' theatre
One of the costumes from a performance of The Skriker at the Royal Exhange Theatre
Fifty years ago, the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester opened its doors for its first production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals.
It was September 1976, and the seven-sided theatre constructed from tubular steel in the heart of the city was described by some as something from out of space.
"It sits almost like a spaceship inside this extraordinary great Victorian Hall with all the pillars so already you have this tension," said Selina Cartmell, the theatre's creative director.
"They created a theatre of 750 seats in the round, a democratic arena where the alchemy between actor and audience is at its most purest form and they've created something that still feels fresh today."
In the five decades since the theatre opened in St Ann's Square, some of the world's most famous actors have performed at the theatre.
The exhibition at the Royal Exchange Theatre, pictured, will celebrate "50 years of storytelling through costume, craft and performance"
Hugh Grant in 1986 and Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren in 1981 are just some of the acting talent to have graced its stage.
In 2004, long before Spiderman, Andrew Garfield was in Cares, while Maxime Peake appeared more recently in 2015 and the following year Don Warrington swapped Death in Paradise to play King Lear.
To mark its 50th anniversary, some of the costumes worn by those acting greats are on display.