A RADICAL reworking of Homer’s Illiad by acclaimed poet and novelist Simon Armitage will be one of the highlights of the spring and summer season at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre which was unveiled this week.

The world premiere of The Last Days of Troy will run from Thursday, May 8 until Saturday, June 7.

The 2014 spring season kicks off with former Coronation Street actress and Scott and Bailey star Suranne Jones in a stage version of Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando which opens on Thursday, February 20.

The production will feature a cast of three playing 43 characters.

Other highlights include a new production of the Shakesperean comedy Much Ado About Nothing from rising Swedish director Maria Aberg who will be making her debut at the Royal Exchange and a stage version of Billy Liar.

There will also be a second world premiere in the season, Britannia Rules the Waves which won a judges award in the 2011 Bruntwood Prize, playwriting competition and a spectacular family show, Around the World in Eighty Days, co-produced with the New Vic Theatre at Newcastle-under-Lyme.

For more details, contact the Exchange box office on 0161 833 9833 or visit www. royalexchange.co.uk.