The Playwrights Database
GERARD BELL
Nationality: British
email: n/a Website: n/a
Literary Agent: n/a
Gerard Bell is an actor who has worked in conventional and experimental performance (theatre, film, video, dance and installation work) in Europe and the UK. He has worked with Pina Bausch, Graeme Miller, David Gale, Athina Vahla, Lucy Cash, Improbable and Stans Cafe.
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below is a list of Gerard Bell's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Anatomy Of Melancholy, The Cardinals, The So BelowAnatomy Of Melancholy, The
Synopsis:
the Anatomy of Melancholy has been described as the greatest book ever written . Nearly 400 years old, it is a vast, 1500 page attempt to identify the causes, symptoms and cures for all kinds of melancholy. Written by vicar and librarian Robert Burton it contains all the wisdom of its age arcane, outlandish and hilarious. Yet, amidst all the wild stories and suppositions, much of its advice remains as urgent and profound now as it did then. Ten years ago a Serbian festival director challenged Stans Cafe to adapt this, his favourite book, for the stage, stating that they were the only company he could imagine pulling it off. So this is their attempt to bring the Anatomy Of Melancholy, perhaps the worlds most extraordinary self-help manual, to the stage.
Notes:
Devised and Performed by Gerard Bell, Rochi Rampal, Graeme Rose,Craig Stephens
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Stan's Cafe
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Devised Piece
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageCardinals, The
Synopsis:
Three Cardinals in crimson robes are on a mission of evAngelism. they are on tour with a puppet show they have made that sets out their abbreviated and extrapolated reading of the bible. the reading is abbreviated as it stages only a relatively small number of scenes key to their message of redemption; it is extrapolated as its reading of the book of Acts and Revelation include elements of contemporary history. Our theatre show is slightly bigger than the Cardinal's own puppet show our real audience (as opposed to their fictional audience), can see what is happening in the wings, how they collaborate and argue, how they are both aided by and in conflict with their young female Muslim stage manager. the Cardinals is essentially a visual show performed without words. the Cardinals have no puppets to speak of so enter the puppet stage themselves. the sincerity of the Cardinals, the seriousness of their intent and their theatrical naivete makes the show simultaniously very funny and strangely touching. the show has many themes with Belief chief amongst them. the Cardinals ask us to 'believe' whilst classically the theatre asks us to 'suspend our disbelief'. the show is in essence very simple, it tells well-known Bible stories in a simple, beautiful and compelling way. We have been asked if the show is 'controversial' which is an impossible question to answer definitively because we cannot answer for other people's personal instincts. We hope the show is provocative but not controversial. We are not seeking to argue for or against religion but hoping to prompt people to consider their relationship to religious faith. - Stan's cafe
Notes:
devised by Alia Alzougbi, Gerard Bell, Graeme Rose, Craig Stephens for Stan's Cafe
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Stan's Cafe
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
piece
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageSo Below
Synopsis:
Buckets of water, mounds of earth, gravel, the time it takes a tree to wrap around a gaggle of grave stones, a stutter holding us in place. Two performers learn the dance steps, tidy the graves, fail to determine the difference between pain and itch, and tremble in the face of a world made small. Combining composed and appropriated movement with spoken word, and focussing on the texture and sound of materials, the performance strives to express the completeness of a single moment. We walk on the wrong side, we fail to progress, we run from the dance, we light the match, we define happiness, we have a cup of tea. We can't find the horizon. We tremble in the face of death. We tend the garden. We attempt to present our findings on the quality of distance. Somewhere between heartbeats we are confronted with the time it takes a tree to grow around a circle of dislocated gravestones. We make way for progress. This duet explores a moment of pause, the space between two stutters-stopped in our tracks, we can't move on-and as time stops and the world grows small around us we find a multitude encased in this interval. With a combination of gravity and lightness two people inhabit a carefully constructed twilight of mounding earth and the sound of water intermingled with the comic grace of a time between world wars.
Notes:
devised by Gerard Bell & Karen Christopher
1st Produced:
Chelsea Theatre SACRED, London 19 Oct 2012
Organisations:
Haranczak/Navarre Performance Projects
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
piece
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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