Bell Shakespeare’s founder will hand over the reins to Peter Evans in 2015.

The great Australian actor and director John Bell has announced that he will step down as Co-Artistic Director of Bell Shakespeare, the company he founded 25 years ago. In a beautifully written statement, Bell declared his intention to quit when he reaches the age of 75 and hand over the reins of the company to Peter Evans at the end of 2015.

“I have had this strategy in mind for some time,” said Bell. “After five years of working alongside me and the culmination of his long experience with the Company, I am confident Peter is more than ready to take on the leadership of Bell Shakespeare”.

Applauding the new energy and renewed focus that Evans will bring, Bell went on to praise the achievements of the Company over the past 25 years. His most emotional words were reserved for his long-term relationship with the man with whose work he has been most closely associated over his long career. “I shall miss walking side-by-side with the Bard on a daily basis,” he writes. “My life has been immeasurably enriched by maintaining a daily conversation with one of the greatest minds of all time – questioning, probing, researching and giving his words breath. If I had my life again, I would choose no other course. I would try to do things better after the lessons I’ve learned, but I can think of no greater privilege than the opportunity to devote one’s life and energy to the works of Shakespeare”.

Rumours of Bell’s retirement, however, seem likely to have been exagerated. Next year will see him appearing in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra as the melancholic Jaques in Peter Evans’ new production of As You Like It, while his applauded production of Tosca for Opera Australia will return to Sydney in the summer. Later in the year he directs The Tempest for the first time for Bell Shakespeare.

Paying tribute to the people who have served the Bell Shakespeare Company, Board and Artistic Advisory Council he had particular praise for “the vision and generosity” of founding patron, the late Anthony Gilbert AO. “Classical theatre is a priceless part of our heritage and Bell Shakespeare has had enormous success in making Shakespeare and other classics a convincing part of Australia’s cultural landscape,” Bell goes on to say. “I am proud of the fact that Bell Shakespeare has been instrumental in launching and fostering the careers of so many actors, directors and other theatre makers. The opportunities for actors in Australia to hone their skills in the classic repertoire are very rare”.

“I shall miss the Bell Shakespeare family. It has been my great good fortune to spend a third of my life with a bunch of the smartest, funniest, most loyal and creative people I can imagine – I shall miss their comradeship. The great director Peter Brook once suggested that if a group of people came together to devote themselves entirely to realising the works of Shakespeare, what an extraordinary group of people that would be. It has been my great joy to spend the last twenty-five years with such people”.