Following the sell out of JOHN BELL : A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS in December 2019, Bell has come back to the Ensemble with another show of the same ilk, JOHN BELL : AND ANOTHER THING…
It’s not every day that you get the chance to spend an hour with Australian theatre royalty. The audience was very appreciative of this and gave Bell a warm round of applause as he walked onto the stage.
The structure of the show was delightfully simple. Bell recited anecdotes, favourite poems, speeches and the like. He carried with him a folder of different pieces which he sometimes would refer to, at other times he recited without ‘book’.
There were many highlights. Here are just a few.
The James Killen anecdote. Killen was the Minister for Defence in the Liberal government under Prime Minister Billy McMahon. At a cabinet meeting McMahon was floundering and said, ‘sometimes I think I am my own worst enemy’. Killen, a known wit, said under his breath, ‘Not while I am alive’.
Bell gave a moving recitation of the classic Robert Frost poem ‘The Road Less Travelled’ with that wonderful stanza, ‘Two paths diverged in the woods, I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference’.
Bell, totally understandable, couldn’t resist a bit of Shakespeare, and recited the famous Anthony and Cleopatra speech which included another remarkable stanza, ‘age cannot wither her, nor custom stale, her infinite variety, other women cloy the appetites they feed, where she makes hungry, whom most she satisfies’.
Bell had received many requests to recite pieces since his first show so part of the show saw him answering these requests. He even included a request from his wife, Anna Volska.
One of my favourite poets E E Cummings made the cut though Bell recited a poem that I was not familiar with.
Now in his early eighties Bell is still a lucid and active presence on the Sydney theatre scene. He will return to the Ensemble later] in the year in ‘The Christmas Carol’.
Well worth a visit, the remaining performances of ‘John Bell: And Another Thing’ are Friday 28th January at 11am, Sunday 30th January at 2pm, Sunday 6th February at 2pm and Sunday 13th February at 2pm.