Bell Shakespeare 2024 Season

Image: Robert Menzies as King Lear. Photo by Pierre Toussaint

Bell Shakespeare has announced its 2024 Season. For the first time in over a decade, the company presents a new production of King Lear, staging the epic work in an intimate setting. A Midsummer Night’s Dream will tour to over 23 venues throughout the country that it didn’t reach in 2021 after disruptions due to COVID lockdowns and border closures. Rounding out the Season, Artistic Director Peter Evans explores Shakespeare’s depictions of violence with In A Nutshell: The Poetry of Violence.

Artistic Director Peter Evans said: “Welcome to Season 2024, where we relish Shakespeare’s highest achievements in the ridiculous and the sublime: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and King Lear. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is very special to me, and whether you are revisiting an old friend in this play or are brand new to Shakespeare, it is a play to treasure. Meanwhile, in King Lear, the complexities and nuances of the play create an astonishing portrait of a family and a country torn apart, and I’m thrilled to collaborate with Robert Menzies, one of our finest classical actors for four decades, as he tackles one of the great roles in Western theatre.

“Later in the year I will lead us through as many plays as I can fit In A Nutshell, an unashamedly personal journey through scenes and speeches I love, focused on the various ways Shakespeare explores and defines violence. We can’t wait to welcome you all into the theatre next year!”

Opening the season at the Sydney Opera House from 6 - 30 March is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which toured to a handful of venues in regional Australia in 2021 before COVID border closures disrupted the remaining dates. It returns in 2024 to play at 23 venues in New South Wales, Western Australia, Victoria and the ACT.

For the first time since 2010, Bell Shakespeare presents King Lear, directed by Peter Evans and starring Robert Menzies (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet) in the titular role. A veteran actor of the stage, Menzies brings his interpretation to the character of Lear, reflecting his four decade career and collaborations with acclaimed theatre makers including Barrie Kosky, Jim Sharman and Jean-Pierre Mignon.

Premiering in Sydney at The Neilson Nutshell from 20 June – 20 July before travelling to Arts Centre Melbourne from 25 July – 11 August, this new production of King Lear promises to be “powerful and utterly unforgettable, staging Shakespeare’s epic of the imagination in a profoundly intimate setting”.

The second installment of In A Nutshell will take audiences on a journey through Artistic Director Peter Evans’ favourite scenes and speeches that explore the poetry of violence in Shakespeare’s plays, from Macbeth to Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet to Richard III. Performed by a team of actors jumping from scene to scene, the production explores how Shakespeare questions our relationship with violence, and his use of the word to describe the limits of emotion and the rashness provoked by love and hate. In A Nutshell: The Poetry of Violence will be presented at The Neilson Nutshell from 5 – 8 September and Canberra Theatre Centre from 13 – 14 September.

Alongside this mainstage programming, Bell Shakespeare will present their extensive national outreach and education program in schools, communities and Juvenile Justice centres across Australia.

Other events throughout the year hosted at Bell Shakespeare’s home at Pier 2/3 at Walsh Bay Arts Precinct will include a film screening series Shakespeare on Film, a panel on Shakespeare and the language revolution, a pop trivia night, the lively script reading series, Play In A Day, featuring Cymbeline, and the ever popular Sonnets & Semillon.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

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 faeries are 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. 

Dates:

Sydney Opera House | (Previews 2 – 5 March) 6 – 30 March 2024

Arts Centre Melbourne | 25 April – 11 May 2024

Canberra Theatre Centre |7 – 15 June 2024

KING LEAR

King Lear has ruled for a lifetime. He has plans for succession – the Kingdom is to be shared among his three daughters. But when he is challenged, Lear’s reaction unravels his family and ultimately the country, hurling him into a storm of rage, self-discovery, and perhaps even acceptance.

 Is this Shakespeare’s great exploration of ‘filial ingratitude’? Or the sad tale of an old man in decline and the terrible choices forced upon his daughters? Is it the story of an appallingly entitled and selfish king? Or a daughter too naïve and proud to compromise for an ailing father?

 It is about all these things, and more. Shakespeare’s epic of the imagination, performed in the intimate settings of The Neilson Nutshell and the Fairfax Studio.

Dates:

The Neilson Nutshell, Pier 2/3 Sydney | (Previews 14 – 16 June) 20 June – 20 July

Arts Centre Melbourne | (Preview 25 July) 26 July – 11 August

IN A NUTSHELL: THE POETRY OF VIOLENCE

When Shakespeare explores violence it is often epic and cruel, but never gratuitous. Whether it’s Brutus considering a justification for murder in Julius Caesar, or Volumnia relishing the bravery and brutality of her warrior son in Coriolanus, Shakespeare asks questions about our relationship with violence. But he also uses the word to describe the limits of emotion, and the rashness provoked by love and hate. 

From Macbeth to Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet to Richard III, Artistic Director Peter Evans will share insights into Shakespeare’s concerns and preoccupations and the inner workings of the plays.

Dates:

The Neilson Nutshell, Pier 2/3 Sydney | (Preview 4 September) 5 – 8 September

Canberra Theatre Centre | 13 – 14 September

Download Season 2024 brochure here.

Click here to read about more 2024 seasons.