Bell Shakespeare is to present an intimate, solo show by company founder John Bell called One Man In His Time: John Bell and Shakespeare in which the veteran actor delivers a range of speeches from the Bard’s plays and uses them to consider fundamental topics such as humanity, life, death, love and honour. John Bell spoke to Limelight about the show, which he will perform in Sydney and Canberra.

John Bell performing a section of One Man In His Time for Sydney Opera House’s From Our House to Yours digital platform last year. Photograph courtesy of Bell Shakespeare

How did One Man In His Time come about?

I mentioned to Peter [Evans, Bell Shakespeare’s Artistic Director] that I was doing some one-man shows for the Ensemble. I did one the year before last and I was due to do one last year, but that was postponed [due to COVID-19] so I am doing it this year. The first was called A Few of My Favourite Things – stories and poetry and theatre tales – a very personal piece that went very well at the Ensemble so they said “come back and do another one”,...