Press Release:
Bell Shakespeare has announced their 2021 season, which will mark the company’s return to the stage and live performance for the first time since the COVID-19 lockdown in March. As Australia’s national touring theatre company and now in its 31st year, Bell Shakespeare will travel across the country with a program including an evening with company Founding Artistic Director John Bell, a remounting of this year’s popular Hamlet production that closed just 1.5 weeks after opening due to lockdown, and a staging of the popular classic A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Following a successful online sneak peek filmed with Bell Shakespeare Founding Artistic Director John Bell at the Sydney Opera House earlier this year after a cancellation due to COVID-19, audiences will finally be able to attend the live performance of One Man In His Time: John Bell and Shakespeare. Presented at the Sydney Opera House (11-14 March) and Canberra Theatre Centre (15 April), this intimate one-man performance is a reflection on works by Shakespeare that have left their mark on Bell, the man who believed that Australians could see themselves reflected in the works of Shakespeare, and founded a Company based on his belief. Now in his 80th year, Bell is an icon of the Australian stage and respected by audiences and colleagues alike for his personal and genuine connection to Shakespeare that has inspired Australians for decades.
Audiences will have a second chance to see the seminal revenge tragedy Hamlet which premiered earlier in 2020 to rave reviews, directed by Bell Shakespeare Artistic Director Peter Evans and starring Harriet Gordon-Anderson (The Miser) as Hamlet. Presented at the Sydney Opera House (11 August – 4 September), Arts Centre Melbourne (10-19 September) and Canberra Theatre Centre (24 September – 2 October), the production has been
reimagined for contemporary audiences, transporting them to a wintery Denmark scene in the 1960s.
One of Shakespeare’s most popular plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream will debut at Arts Centre Melbourne (15-24 July) before travelling to far corners across the country to over 26 locations including Hobart, Alice Springs and Mackay, and finishing at the Sydney Opera House (14 October – 7 November), bringing Shakespeare’s classic comedy filled with magic and mirth to audiences all over Australia and reflecting the company’s ethos of providing all Australians with access to Shakespeare.
Bell Shakespeare Artistic Director Peter Evans said: “After a challenging year that saw us celebrate our 30th anniversary in a drastically different way than we had planned we can’t wait to get back into the theatre and enjoy live performance once again. We are going to keep celebrating Bell Shakespeare into 2021 and I’m delighted audiences will have a second chance to see our short-lived acclaimed 2020 production of Hamlet as well as an opportunity to see John Bell’s insights, thoughtfulness, deep love of this work and generosity on full display for One Man in His Time. To complete our year in a celebration of the theatre as we return to the stage, my refreshed and reimagined family friendly production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will tour to over 26 venues in almost every state and territory in Australia.”
Alongside this programming, Bell Shakespeare will present their extensive outreach and education program across the country in schools, juvenile justice centres, indigenous communities and community halls.
Company players will also for the first time present Play in a Day, an entertaining performance that is read, rehearsed and performed in just one day and available to season package purchasers. In 2021 the plays featured will be lesser known works by Shakespeare’s contemporary Thomas Middleton including Women Beware Women and The Revenger’s Tragedy.
One Man In His Time: John Bell and Shakespeare
Spend an evening with John Bell; a man who believed that Australians could see themselves reflected in the works of Shakespeare and founded a company based on his belief. Join one of Australia’s National Living Treasures as he shares his humour, wit and a lifetime of experience walking beside one of the greatest writers to have ever lived, in One Man In His Time: John Bell and Shakespeare.
This fascinating backstage pass to John Bell’s life and his relationship with Shakespeare will be a beautiful evening of performance and recollection.
SydneyOperaHouse 11–14 March
Canberra Theatre Centre 15 April
Hamlet
Inside the glamorous court of Denmark, a family is torn apart by murder and betrayal. Outside, a country is threatened by Norway. And at the centre of this struggle is a man brimming with anguish.
Hamlet is a portrait of a young man struggling with the death of his royal father, his mother’s hasty remarriage to his uncle, and the visage of his father’s ghost looming in his mind’s eye. A story of revenge, passion, and deception, this is a new version of Hamlet for our time.
This is the world of politics, where a human desire for retribution quickly becomes a burden to struggle against. Set against a classically timeless Danish backdrop, where family cannot be trusted, friendships turn adversarial, and the ghost of Hamlet’s father pushes his entire world to its brink.
Ordered to kill. Tempted to resist. Live or die.
Sydney Opera House 11August–4 September
Arts Centre Melbourne 10 – 19 September
Canberra Theatre Centre 24 September – 2 October
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare’s classic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is reawakened in this breathless production brimming with magic, mirth and mayhem.
Love is in the air in Athens – and it’s contagious. Besides the royal wedding, which is just days away, there are young lovers dreaming of enchanted futures together. Hermia and Lysander are besotted with one another, while Helena adores Demetrius. The only snag is that Demetrius loves Hermia – and he’s got Hermia’s father on his side. So nobody is happy. (Shakespeare wasn’t kidding when he said the course of true love never did run smooth.)
Determined to be together, Hermia and Lysander meet in a moonlit forest, with plans to elope. Following hot on their heels is Demetrius, who in turn is pursued by a lovelorn Helena. But the young lovers are not alone in the forest. Nick Bottom and his hapless bunch of tradies have gathered to rehearse a play to be performed at the royal wedding. And, hidden from human eyes, a mischievous sprinkling of fairies is also in the forest that night. The three worlds collide in an explosion of comic confusion that throws the future of all the lovers into jeopardy.
This production is quick as a shadow. Fast, funny and family-friendly, this is A Midsummer Night’s Dream reimagined.
Arts Centre Melbourne 15 – 24 July
SydneyOperaHouse 14October–7November
Other regional dates to be announced in due course.
