Speak The Speech by Bell Shakespeare – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Desdemona from Othello Act 4, Scene 2 performed by Lisa McCune 

This week, for our final episode of Season 3 of Speak The Speech, we are joined by one of Australia’s most popular and successful screen and theatre actors, Lisa McCune. Lisa performs Desdemona’s speech from Act 4, Scene 2 of Othello and delves into the language of the piece. She also talks about playing Gertrude in Bell Shakespeare’s 2020 production of Hamlet, the difference between performing on stage and screen, and what she’s learned across her acclaimed career. 

 

Lisa McCune has earned an impressive collection of awards as an actor, including four Gold Logies for Most Popular Personality on Australian television. She recently starred in Girl from the North Country, as well as the Network Ten comedy series How To Stay Married and Bell Shakespeare’s production of Hamlet. 

 

After graduating from the WA Academy of Performing Arts, she landed the role of Maggie Doyle in the police drama Blue Heelers, which went on to become one of the most popular and enduring programs on Australian television, making her a household name. Her other screen credits include The Potato Factory, Ex PM, It’s A Date, Sea Patrol, Rake, MDA, and Hell Has Harbour Views. 

 

On stage, she’s starred as Maria in The Sound of Music, which she followed with her Green Room Award-winning performance as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. She earned a Helpmann nomination for her performance in The King and I, and has also appeared in Shane Warne The Musical, South Pacific, Into The Woods, and Guys and Dolls. 

Julius Caesar from Julius Caesar Act 2, Scene 2 performed by Greg Doran  

“If theatre holds a mirror up to nature, and you don’t see yourself reflected in that mirror, then why should you engage with it?” 

This week on Speak The Speech, we are joined by “one of the great Shakespeareans of his generation” [Sunday Times], Artistic Director Emeritus of the Royal Shakespeare Company Gregory Doran. Gregory talks about his extensive and acclaimed body of work with the RSC, his long personal and professional partnership with Sir Antony Sher, and his commitment to diversity of voices in creating Shakespeare for everyone.  

Gregory Doran has spent 35 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the last 10 as Artistic Director. His directing highlights include King Lear, starring Antony Sher, The Tempest starring Simon Russell Beale, and his world-renowned production of Julius Caesar for the World Shakespeare Festival. In 2021 he directed the Henry VI Part 1 Open Rehearsal Project, which for the first time invited audiences to observe the RSC’s full rehearsal process. In 2016 he took the company to mainland China for the first time, with the Henry IV plays and Henry V. In 2012 he directed David Tennant in Richard II, the first RSC production to be broadcast live in cinemas. He’s won an Olivier award, a Sam Wanamaker Award from Shakespeare’s Globe, and received numerous honorary doctorates. In 2023, as Artistic Director Emeritus, he will direct Cymbeline, his 50th production for the RSC. 

Richard II from Richard II Act 5, Scene 5 performed by Maitland Schnaars 

This week on Speak The Speech, we are joined by one of Western Australia’s premier Indigenous contemporary theatre artists, Maitland Schnaars. In this episode, Maitland discusses his role in the 2022 touring production of The Comedy of Errors and the physicality of Shakespeare’s works. He also shares his experience of working in contemporary and traditional Noongar dance, Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company’s production of Hecate, and what it would be like to tour Noongar language works out of Country. Maitland Schnaars co-founded the international theatre company Corazon de Vaca and has performed and co-created a number of their productions, both in Spain and in Perth, Australia. He has recently performed in productions for Black Swan Theatre Company, Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company, a co-production for Queensland Theatre Company and Griffin Theatre Company, a national tour for Tasmania Performs and assistant directed and performed for WAYTCO (Western Australian Youth Theatre Company).  

He has worked with many independent theatre companies in Perth and continues to work with artists from various backgrounds such as dance, multimedia and music. In 2016, he won Performing Arts WA Best Actor award. He is also a member of Wadumbah Noongah Dance Group.  

Find out more about Bell Shakespeare online: https://www.bellshakespeare.com.au/ and follow us on socials @bellshakespeare 

Andy from Just Macbeth! by Andy Griffiths performed by Andy Griffiths  

Welcome to season three of Bell Shakespeare’s podcast Speak The Speech! In this episode, Andy Griffiths talks to host James Evans about writing his Shakespeare adaptions Just Macbeth! and Just Romeo & Juliet!, how he inserts himself into his work, workshopping his plays and watching them come to life, the parallels between Macbeth and Hamlet, and his crucial collaborative relationships. Recorded live from Melbourne in May 2022. Andy Griffiths is one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors. His writing credits include The Day My Bum Went Psycho and the following trilogy; his extensive collaborations with illustrator Terry Denton including the Just series and the Treehouse series have sold over 10 million copies worldwide, won 80 children’s choice awards and 10 Australian Book Industry Awards—including Book of the Year for The 52-Storey Treehouse in 2015. Five of his books have been adapted for the stage and have all had sell-out seasons at Sydney Opera House, as well as highly successful tours through the Netherlands, New Zealand, and America. He is a passionate advocate for literacy and in 2015 was awarded the Dromkeen Medal to honour his outstanding contribution to Australian children’s literature. He is also an ambassador for both The Indigenous Literacy Foundation and the Pyjama Foundation.

Find out more about Bell Shakespeare online: https://www.bellshakespeare.com.au/ and follow us on socials @bellshakespeare

Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing Act 4, Scene 1 performed by Grace Truman  

In the final episode of Season Two of Speak The Speech Grace Truman join us to perform and talk about Beatrice’s speech from Act 4 Scene 1 of Much Ado About Nothing. Grace shares her experience as a young actor, juggling school and performing, and how Shakespeare can articulate any emotion you are feeling. Grace Truman is an actor and writer. She made her professional theatre debut at the age of 14 in the National Theatre of Parramatta’s production of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, reprising the role in 2020 for Belvoir. For Bell Shakespeare she has appeared in Titus Andronicus. Grace co-created, wrote and starred in the acclaimed web series amazing Grace. She has won numerous awards, including Best Female Performance at the London International Web Fest, an Award of Excellence at IndieFest USA, and was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Sydney Theatre Awards.

Duke Senior from As You Like It Act 2, Scene 1 performed by Kyle Morrison 

Kyle Morrison joins us on Speak The Speech to perform Duke Senior’s speech from Act 2 Scene 1 of As You Like It. He talks about building cultural legacy through art, his passion for decolonising Shakespeare and what it’s like to be putting on a play during a pandemic. Kyle is a Noongar man, an actor and director. From 2009 to 2019 he was Artistic Director of Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company, and was the creative instigator of Hecate, the Noongar retelling of Macbeth, which premiered at the Perth Festival in 2020. His performance in that show won him Best Supporting Actor at the Performing Arts WA Awards. His directing credits include Honey Spot, Mother’s Tongue, Kaarla Kaatijin, SkyLab (with Black Swan Theatre Company) The Cake Man (with Belvoir), Sista Girl (with the State Theatre Company of South Australia), King Hit (awarded WA’s Best Production of 2015), and Ice Land: A Hip-h’Opera. He'll soon be appearing as Oberon in Bell Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act 1, Scene 1 performed by Gabrielle Scawthorn 

Gabrielle Scawthorn joins us to perform Helena’s soliloquy from the opening scene of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She talks about playing Helena, creating her own work, what it’s like to audition with food poisoning and why her dream Shakespeare role may be an unconventional choice. Gabrielle Scawthorn is an actor and writer. She is a three-time Sydney Theatre Award nominee and appears as Helena in Bell Shakespeare’s 2021 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her previous theatre credits include The Apologists at Omnibus Theatre in London; E-Baby and Blood Bank for the Ensemble Theatre; Stop Kiss at ATYP; The Village Bike at The Old Fitz and The Sound of Waiting for Darlinghurst Theatre. She is the host of the popular podcast Back From Reality which explores the world of reality television and the impact that it has on the lives of its participants. 

You can follow Gabrielle on Instagram @gjosca and listen to Back to Reality here.

You can find out more about Bell Shakespeare’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream here.

Rosalind from As You Like It Act 4, Scene 1 performed by Penny Gay    Professor Penny Gay joins us on Speak The Speech to perform and talk about Rosalind’s speech from Act 4 Scene 1 of As You Like It. Penny and James discuss women in Shakespeare, why Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing is Penny’s favourite character and how performing in a Shakespeare play at university changed the course of her academic life. Penny Gay is Professor Emerita in English and Drama at the University of Sydney. Her major research interest is in performance history, and she’s currently writing about Shakespeare performance history in Australia. Her publications include As She Likes It: Shakespeare’s Unruly Women, The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s Comedies, Teaching Shakespeare Beyond the Centre, and Jane Austen and the Theatre. She has edited Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice for publication, and has contributed numerous essays to collections like the Cambridge Companions and Oxford Handbooks.

Gloucester from Henry VI Act 3, Scene 2 performed by Paula Arundell 

In this episode Paula Arundell joins James to perform and discuss Richard Gloucester’s speech from Act 3 of Henry VI Part 3. They speak about the complexity of a ‘villain’ and how actors approach such characters in the rehearsal room. Paula recounts her extensive career in Australia, from early Shakespeare performances to her current role as Hermione in the Melbourne production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Paula Arundell is a multi-award-winning actor who has worked with Bell Shakespeare, Belvoir, Sydney Theatre Company, Griffin Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company and Ensemble Theatre.

Richard II from Richard II Act 3, Scene 2 performed by Michael Chaney     In this special live episode, recorded from Perth, James is joined by Michael Chaney AO. Michael performs and dissects Richard II’s speech from Act 3 Scene 2 of Richard II. They discuss leadership in Shakespeare’s works and in corporate Australia, the role of corporate social responsibility and the importance of supporting the arts. Michael Chaney is Chairman of Wesfarmers Limited, one of Australia’s largest companies. He also heads the National School Resourcing Board and is a Director of the Centre for Independent Studies. He is a former Chairman of the National Australia Bank and of Woodside Petroleum, a former director of BHP and the previous Chancellor of the University of Western Australia. Wesfarmers Arts

is Bell Shakespeare’s Perth Season Partner.