Season Overview
Bell Shakespeare’s 2012 season is all about obsession. It’s exciting and sexy and underpinned by great artistic collaborations.
The season commences with Peter Evans directing Dan Spielman and Kate Mulvany in Macbeth followed by John Bell directing Hugh Colman and Ailsa Piper’s adaptation of John Webster’s white hot The Duchess Of Malfi starring Lucy Bell. The season closes with Lee Lewis directing Molière’s engaging romp, The School For Wives.
For more information and bookings visit bellshakespeare.com.au.
Tickets on sale Monday 13 February.
MACBETH
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
DIRECTED BY PETER EVANS
W/ KATE MULVANY, DAN SPIELMAN
Sydney Opera House, Playhouse
30 March - 12 May
The Macbeths are the picture of privileged nobility – happy, successful, going places. Then Macbeth happens upon three witches who predict he will soon be King – a prophecy he distrusts but which his wife becomes utterly seduced by.
Peter Evans fulfills a long awaited ambition to collaborate with Dan Spielman in the title role and Kate Mulvany who plays his highly erotic wife. This season’s Macbeth reveals what the lure of power can do to a man, and the devastation it can wreak on a marriage and a nation.
THE DUCHESS OF MALFI
BY JOHN WEBSTER
ADAPTED BY HUGH COLMAN AND AILSA PIPER
DIRECTED BY JOHN BELL
DESIGNER STEPHEN CURTIS
LIGHTING DESIGNER HARTLEY T A KEMP
COMPOSER ALAN JOHN
FIGHT DIRECTOR NIGEL POULTON
W/ LUCY BELL, LUCIA MASTRANTONE, MATTHEW MOORE, SEAN O'SHEA, DAVID WHITNEY, BEN WOOD
Sydney Opera House, Playhouse
6 July - 5 August
Young, beautiful and widowed, the Duchess of Malfi is a tragic figure of nobility and integrity. Yet she exists in a world of corruption where the true horror of her life is yet to unfold. Her two brothers control her fortune – and
her body – and they want to keep it that way. When they discover she has not only married in secret but has also borne a child, a string of murders is set in motion.
John Bell directs this white-hot adaptation of John Webster’s finest play.
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES
BY MOLIÈRE
TRANSLATED BY JUSTIN FLEMING
DIRECTED BY LEE LEWIS
Sydney Opera House, Playhouse
23 October - 24 November
Falling in love is never easy. Take our hero for instance. Now here’s a guy who wants desperately to get married but is afraid that a smart woman will cheat on him. His ingenious solution? Enlist the help of a local convent to raise a girl so stupidly innocent that she won’t know the first thing about cheating – let alone the last. In his mind she will be ever-faithful. The perfect wife. Or is she?
Following on from her success with Twelfth Night, director Lee Lewis directs this fresh new translation from Justin Fleming of Molière's comedic train-wreck of a love story that tangles innocence with arrogance –
and the other way around.
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Under the artistic leadership of highly-acclaimed actor/director John Bell AO, Bell Shakespeare is Australia's premier producer of Shakespeare and classical theatre. As a major presenter at leading performing arts centres across the country, Bell Shakespeare works with the best local and international artists to produce bold, contemporary and exciting theatre of the highest standard. In addition to touring theatre productions, the company is devoted to training and education and has firmly established itself as Australia's most influential and significant provider of Shakespeare education in schools.
Artistic Director: John Bell AO
General Manager: Christopher Tooher
PO Box 10 Millers Point NSW 2000
Telephone: +61 2 8298 9000
Fax: +61 2 9241 4643
Email: mail@bellshakespeare.com.au
www.bellshakespeare.com.au