John Bell has been named by the National Trust of Australia as one of ‘Australia’s Living Treasures.’ Born in Maitland, NSW, in 1940, he is a theatre polymath whose work has shaped the evolution of a distinct Australian theatre.

Educated at University of Sydney, Bell acted in university theatre and made his professional debut in 1963 in the Old Tote Theatre Company’s inaugural production, The Cherry Orchard. In 1964 he was a sensational Henry V, with Anna Volska as Katherine, in an innovative Adelaide Festival tent presentation. The Sydney Morning Herald called him ‘a possible Olivier of the future’.

After training with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Bell joined The Royal Shakespeare Company for four years and was made an Associate Artist. He returned to Sydney in 1970 as Head of Acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. That same year he produced the landmark Australian musical burlesque The Legend of King O’Malley and co-founded the Nimrod Theatre Company. He was its artistic director, director and principal actor until 1985.

At Nimrod Bell presented many significant Australian plays, such as David Williamson’s Travelling North, The Club and The Removalists, Peter Kenna’s A Hard God, Jim McNeil’s How Does Your Garden Grow and Ron Blair’s The Christian Brothers. Other highlights included a dramatic adaptation of Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, The Venetian Twins, an Australian musical based on the Goldoni classic, and the Bernstein musical Candide. Bell also introduced a distinctive Australian Shakespeare style, with memorable productions of Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth.

In 1989 Bell played the Duke in Big River, his first major role in a musical. Shortly after this he was invited by the late Tony Gilbert, a Shakespeare-loving philanthropist, to establish a national touring organisation presenting Shakespeare in a popular style.

The Bell Shakespeare Company was launched in 1990 with Hamlet and The Merchant Of Venice (with Bell as Shylock), followed by Richard 3 (with Bell in the title role) and Romeo And Juliet. Thirty-four years on, the company is a vital presence in the national theatre landscape.

John Bell is a font of knowledge and anecdote and what a privilege to access a bit of that in this enthralling episode of the STAGES podcast.

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