Bell Shakespeare Announces First Production For 2017
By: BWW News Desk Dec. 09, 2016
"Announcing any new production to our audiences is always a special experience because we're sharing something that we've worked passionately on for months, sometimes years to make happen. The announcement of RICHARD 3 is even more dear to me because of how long Kate and I have been working on bringing this production to audiences."
RICHARD 3 is a play that revels in naked ambition and villainy. First performed around 1593, it is the portrait of a Machiavellian psychopath, a cold-blooded and dastardly manipulator who slaughters his family, marries his victim's widow and eventually betrays his allies, all in his quest to become king.
"This is the third in a series of productions Kate and I have collaborated on over the years, including JULIUS CAESAR (2011) and MACBETH (2012).
"In both those productions and again in RICHARD 3, Kate explores these plays and the roles of women within them as an actress and dramaturg. RICHARD 3 is a play where the grief and rage is carried by women who have to stand by as their husbands and sons die. Having Kate play the male protagonist, whose contempt for women is infamous, will bring a new layer to this production."
Bell Shakespeare is also launching a single ticket membership scheme to replace the usual Australian theatre season package model.
"Theatre is changing. Audiences are changing. It was important to us that we find ways for every member of our audience to connect with us in a genuine way, not just the frequent flyers of the theatre world - who we still value, but also those who only come and see us once a year - but they come every year without fail. We felt that they should be nurtured as well.
"The Bell Membership still provides discounted tickets to our productions in an annual year period, the main benefit is members can also access the discount regardless of the number of productions they want to attend, whether it's one or more. The Bell Membership will also give members access to an annual online book club, discounts to hospitality and services in either Sydney, Melbourne or Canberra, as well as access to special events.
"The biggest benefit to our audience is that we will roll out production announcements throughout the year rather than all in one big announcement. Every production will include membership discount prices, and it means that we will be better placed to take advantage of touring opportunities, access to international productions as they announce forthcoming productions, and also leverage creative people and opportunities as they present themselves throughout the year."
We are committed to producing timeless and borderless works. The Bell Membership is an extension of that philosophy.
OUR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
In 2016 Peter Evans became only the second Artistic Director of Bell Shakespeare since it was founded in 1990, after sharing the role of Co-Artistic Director with John Bell since 2012. An enthusiastic classicist, he was handpicked by Bell to co-lead Australia's foremost Shakespearean and classical theatre company.
Evans began his career directing at the University of Auckland, before moving to Australia to study at Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). At the young age of 25, Bell invited Evans to assist Steven Berkoff, the legendary English director, writer and actor, who was about to direct Bell in Coriolanus in 1996.
Subsequently Evans was asked to direct Macbeth for Bell Shakespeare's first regional tour in 1997, which aided in establishing the Company's national ambitions.
While studying at NIDA, Evans worked at Sydney's Belvoir Street Theatre with Neil Armfield on The Tempest and The Blind Giant Is Dancing. Later he assisted Wayne Harrison on the world premiere of David Williamson's The Heretic at the Sydney Opera House.
Moving to Melbourne in the late 1990s, Evans worked as a freelance director for Bell Shakespeare (Two Gentleman of Verona, The Tempest), Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre (Yellow Wall Paper) and the Queensland Theatre Company (The Daylight Atheist). He then spent four years as Associate Director at Melbourne Theatre Company and directed Clybourne Park, A Behanding in Spokane, Life Without Me, Dead Man's Cell Phone, The Ugly One, God of Carnage, Savage River (co-production with Griffin Theatre Company) Realism, The Hypocrite, Blackbird, Don Juan in Soho, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The History Boys, Don's Party, The Give and Take, Dumbshow, and The Daylight Atheist.
Peter's directing credits also include Pygmalion, The Grenade, The Great, Fat Pig, and The Give and Take (Sydney Theatre Company); Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, King Lear, Copenhagen, Proof, Muldoon, and The Christian Brothers (New Zealand's Court Theatre), Jesus Hopped the A Train (Red Stitch Actors Theatre); A Poor Student for the Store Room (Malthouse Theatre); Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Theatre Jamb at the Bondi Pavilion); Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Theatre Adami at the Stables) and The Dumb Waiter (Studio Company at Belvoir St Theatre).
In 2010, Evans returned to Bell Shakespeare and has since directed new versions of Julius Caesar (2011), Macbeth (2012), Phèdre (2013), The Dream (2014), Tarfuffe (2014), As You Like It (2015), Romeo And Juliet (2016) and Othello (2016).
A STATEMENT FROM KATE MULVANY
When Peter Evans approached me two years ago to perform as the cunning, curved King Richard 3, it was one of those moments that both terrified and tantalised all at once.
Richard 3 is one of those roles you wait for as an actor, and not one you usually expect to be offered as an actress... Which is strange, really, because even in 1592, Shakespeare's text boldly challenged the notion of what makes a "King". Or a "Queen", for that matter.
In 2017, as strongly as ever, if not, more so, Richard 3 continues to challenge the concept of who wields power. It is about breaking the rules of ascension and overthrowing the "norm". It is about the stooped learning to stand. It is about warped personal ambition and systemic ignorance. And most importantly, it is about the consequences of what it is to be a dehumanised human, and our own personal role in it... So for me, it wasn't a question of "Why should I play Richard?" It was a big, terrifying, "Why not?"
I am thrilled to continue my association with Peter, his wonderful creative team and the Bell Shakespeare Company. I look forward to stepping into the shoes of the stooped conqueror Richard and finding out just how much spine we both have.
RICHARD 3 PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Director Peter Evans Designer Anna Cordingley Lighting Designer Benjamin Cisterne Composer Steve Toulmin Movement & Fight Director Nigel Poulton Voice Coach Jess Chambers
With Kate Mulvany, Gareth Reeves, Ivan Donato, Rose Riley, James Lugton, Meredith Penman, James Evans, Sandy Gore, Kevin Maclsaac and Sarah Woods
OUR STORY
With little more than an audacious idea, Bell Shakespeare began its remarkable journey in 1990. That idea? To create a theatre company dedicated to producing the plays of William Shakespeare in a way that was relevant and exciting to Australian audiences.
But in the process, Bell Shakespeare has gone further than its visionary founder John Bell could ever have hoped. It has, quite literally, become a brave teacher in the 'school of life'. The stage has become the springboard from which the Company has dived into some extraordinary work.
Through incredible touring productions and education programmes, Bell Shakespeare is using Shakespeare's universal insights to bring inspiration and truth to minds living in an uncertain world. And, of course, it is connecting beauty and art with imaginations of all ages.
Without the practical support of an enlightened philanthropist, the late Tony Gilbert AM, and a small number of imaginative corporate and private supporters, the original audacious idea might have remained just that. The help of these early contributors meant quite fundamentally that John Bell could mount productions and attract audiences. Because audiences liked what they saw, the Company quickly moved into a position of contributing to its own survival.
Now more than 25 years later, Bell Shakespeare enjoys the fruits of its labour: a history rich with legends of the stage; the establishment of our creative development arm, which ensures our artistic vibrancy; theatre, education and community programmes characterised by unrivalled national reach and impact; and a loyal and passionate audience that has made the Company that began in a circus tent into a national icon.
RICHARD'S STORY (A SYNOPSIS OF RICHARD 3)
England is enjoying a period of peace after a long civil war between the royal family of York and the royal family of Lancaster, in which the York's were victorious. But King Edward IV has a younger brother, Richard, who resents Edward's power and the happiness of those around him.
Bitter about his deformed body, and power-hungry with ambition, Richard initiates a secret plot to take the throne from his brother and to become king by any means available - including murder.
Richard manipulates Lady Anne, a noblewoman, into marrying him even though she knows that he murdered her husband. His brother Clarence is executed, and Richard uses his skills of deception to shift the burden of guilt onto King Edward, which in turn accelerates Edward's illness and eventual death.
Richard, now Lord Protector of England is nominally in charge until the elder of Edward's two sons grows up. Lord Buckingham, Richard's right-hand-man, and his other political allies, campaign to have Richard crowned king. The young princes are imprisoned by Richard in the Tower where he sends hired murderers to kill both children.
The public of England - from the common people to the noblemen, having been terrorised by Richard and his reign of revenge, now fear and loathe him. So when the earl of Richmond, a descendant of a secondary arm of the Lancaster family, emerges as a challenger to the throne, noblemen quickly defect to support him.
In the meantime, Richard murders his wife, Queen Anne, with his sights set on marrying young Elizabeth, the daughter of the former Queen Elizabeth and the dead King Edward, potentially securing his claim to the throne. Queen Elizabeth manages to forestall him whilst secretly promising young Elizabeth to Richmond.
Richard has a terrible dream in which the ghosts of all the people he has murdered curse him, telling him that he will die the next day. The following morning Richmond invades England. Richard is killed in the battle and Richmond is crowned King Henry VII.
Promising a renewed era of peace for England, the new king is betrothed to young Elizabeth in order to unite the warring houses of Lancaster and York.
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