Bell Shakespeare

A message from Bell Shakespeare Artistic Director Peter Evans

Welcome to Bell Shakespeare’s Season 2025; three diverse plays and our exciting program of public events. The world is stranger than ever and as always Shakespeare has seen it or imagined it before. I struggle with whether to reflect, comment or distract when putting together our seasons. I can make a case for distracting; sometimes one wants to not think about the cruelty in the world. But next year we have chosen to reflect and comment, somewhat obliquely, with sophisticated plays of the highest order. 

First up at Sydney Opera House is Henry 5, one of the most famous war plays of all time, directed by Marion Potts. Here Shakespeare puts leadership, rhetoric, charisma and honour under the microscope. This play has become increasingly morally complicated since it was written but Shakespeare seems to have an uncanny ability to allow for the future. 

Next up is a play from my bucket list, Coriolanus, playing across the water from the Opera House in The Neilson Nutshell at Pier 2/3. A portrait of a tyrannical mind in the first years of the Roman Republic, it shows the tensions in the creation of a representative political system, and Shakespeare digs into populism, corruption and the martial imperative of Rome. This is a late play in Shakespeare’s career, so the poetry is rich and powerful; and it features one of the greatest and most compelling mothers ever written, Volumnia.

And finally, we return to Sydney Opera House with Romeo & Juliet. After such success with this production in 2023 in The Neilson Nutshell, we tour it to 26 venues nationally, finishing its run at the Playhouse. A play that needs no introduction, this elegant and clear production is for first timers and aficionados alike. 

If it sometimes feels the world is fixated on finding easy answers, join us as we engage with the nuance and complex thinking of Shakespeare’s mind.

Peter Evans
Artistic Director

Season packages are available now via Bell Shakespeare.