John Bell, Shakespeare and the Quest for a New Australian Theatre

Abstract

In September 2006, on the occasion of the launch of an Australian film version of Shakespeare's Macbeth that was set in the gangland world of Melbourne, John Bell was interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for their television news program, the 7.30 Report. He was asked to comment on the appropriateness of making such a film in Australia. His response was that there should be more Australian film versions of Shakespeare's plays, and that "they should be done in a very Australian way. Just as our theatre Shakespeare is very Australian, so our films should express something that is ours, uniquely ours" (Bell 2006). It was hardly surprising that Bell, as the Australian actor and director most closely associated with Shakespeare's plays, should have been chosen to comment on the film. Furthermore, if it is true that our "theatre Shakespeare" is very Australian, more credit should go to Bell than to any other single Australian theatre practitioner, past or present. This book is a study of Bell's contribution-as an actor and director, not only in Shakespeare productions but also in the productions of newer, Australian playwrights-to a theatre which speaks as directly as possible to Australian audiences, giving them pleasure as well as encouraging a continual rethinking of what Australia means both in itself and in its relations with the rest of the world. Bell has performed and directed with his own two companies for all but five years between 1970 and 2013: from 1970 to 1985 as co-director of the Nimrod Theatre, and from 1990 to the present as artistic director of the Bell Shakespeare Company (BSC).