Who's the pleb at Bell Shakespeare's Coriolanus?
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ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
Coriolanus star Hazem Shammas on the futility of making art at a time of crisis
Hazem Shammas doesn't see the point in making art at a time like this. "I feel the futility of it more and more," he tells ABC Arts. It's a disappointing and troubling feeling for the Palestinian Australian actor, best known for roles in TV shows Safe Harbour, Underbelly and The Twelve. Shammas is grappling with this as he prepares to play the title role of Coriolanus in a new production by Bell Shakespeare in Melbourne. The rarely performed play — it's Bell's first staging in almost 30 years — is about the corrosive influence of power and politics. Shammas plays Coriolanus, a soldier who returns to Rome victorious after war with the Volscians. Called upon to be the city's next consul, he faces opposition from both the city's elected tribunes (played by Matilda Ridgway and Marco Chiappi) and ordinary citizens. He rallies against the idea of popular rule, saying citizens having any power over politicians allows "crows to peck the eagles". Consequently he is banished from Rome, and soon seeks revenge on the city by joining forces with the Volscians. Coriolanus — marking Shammas's return to Bell Shakespeare after starring in Macbeth in 2023 — is landing rave reviews, but the actor had to be convinced to take on the role. "It's not the crowd-pleaser that, say, Macbeth is, and it's not known so much," he says. "And the language: I get a real sense of Shakespeare's maturity in his writing; the poetry is denser." While parallels have been drawn between the character of Coriolanus and US President Donald Trump, the far more disturbing link for Shammas is to the war in Gaza, where 146 people including 88 children have died of malnutrition and the death toll has passed 60,000 people since Hamas' attack on Israel in October 2023. "We're studying power in a time when there are horrific abuses of power and that affects me," Shammas says. "I'm a Palestinian, playing a role where the actor walks around talking about wiping people out as a solution. "I'm playing a role where a man walks around talking about essentially ethnic cleansing. "Of course I'm going to think about that constantly." Making theatre at this time, Shammas says, is "dabbling in whimsy" and an "intellectual privilege". "[Coriolanus] is a play about the abuses of power, but when we're living in a climate of utter, horrific abuse of power and our arts community is silenced, and we remain silent, it troubles me." Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Australian artists whose work has referenced the Arab-Israeli conflict, or who have spoken out about human rights abuses, including the killing of journalists, have had performances cancelled and awards rescinded. Those artists include Khaled Sabsabi, who, after being dropped was recently reinstated to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale; and Jayson Gillham, who is suing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for his cancelled performances. Expressions of support for the Palestinian cause have also ended in censorship. Writer K A Ren Wyld lost a $15,000 fellowship over a social media post following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in October last year, which was deleted shortly after it was posted. Kellee Green's win at the Queensland Music Awards for an instrumental song titled 'River to Sea' led to the Brisbane City Council withdrawing funding for the awards; workshops by Omar Sakr and other writers at the State Library Victoria were cancelled over "child and cultural safety"; and when some of the cast of The Seagull at Sydney Theatre Company wore keffiyehs to a curtain call, a number of donors and board members withdrew. "How are we OK with our artists and our writers being constantly silenced?" Shammas says. "How are we OK with things being defunded or threatened [to be defunded] constantly? "We're in a perpetual state of fear, and we're walking around not talking about it, only worried about our next job and whether we've got a job or not, while people are being f**king slaughtered." Shammas argues government intervention "can stop our voices". "But it's happening everywhere and to everyone right now purely because of a f**king genocide that is being allowed to happen in Palestine. "[That intervention] is more troubling now than it was [in the past]." Israel has repeatedly denied it is pursuing a campaign of genocide in Gaza, accusing Hamas in turn of trying to wipe out the Jewish population in Israel. Shammas does not intend to stop working in the arts. "That's who I am; it's what I do," he says. "That's why I'm so troubled by this." And while he is frustrated by the failure of the Australian arts community to speak up against against the war in Gaza and what he argues is censorship, he is also at times heartened by solidarity in the wider community. For example, current and former collaborators — including Coriolanus co-stars Jules Billington and Matilda Ridgway — have signed an open letter of more than 4,000 artists to the federal government calling for unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza, potential sanctions of Israel, and recognition of Palestinian statehood. "I don't doubt the people I work with and their capacities for engagement in this," he says. "I don't doubt any individual audiences' capacities for engagement in this. "But I doubt our collective will for engagement in this." Still, Shammas remains proud of the work he and his collaborators at Bell Shakespeare have done on Coriolanus. "We've created an exceptional piece of art," he says. But he fears the ideas about power and politics in the play fail to reach beyond the theatre. That impelled him to speak up. Coriolanus is at Arts Centre Melbourne until August 10.
Sydney Morning Herald
6 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
ABC star's son tackles the haters of his very sweary podcast
And those haters will be delighted to hear the podcast has changed the young men's lives. They are now making a modest living off monetisation deals with Spotify and YouTube as well as their own individual sponsorships. Patricians v plebeians Shakespeare's Coriolanus tells the story of Roman soldier/tyrant Coriolanus, who when spurned by his own electorate marches on Rome seeking vengeance. The Bell Shakespeare production has come up with a cunning wheeze, dividing the audience up into noble patricians and common plebeians, in keeping with the play's themes of politics and class conflict. Who'd be attracted to such a play about a supreme egotist? Well, at the Arts Centre Melbourne premiere on Friday, the audience was thick with politicians and lawyers. Thus, Liberal senator Jane Hume, in Roman republic burgundy, found herself among the plebeians, as did rich lister and University of Melbourne chancellor Jane Hansen, and president of the council of trustees for the National Gallery of Victoria Janet Whiting, who joked that surely some mistake had been made. After the show, Bell Shakespeare chair Philip Crutchfield, KC, asked how Hume had gone sitting among the common people. She joked she could handle being the People's Princess. Having come from a federal parliament sitting week, Hume, no doubt having had her fill of sociopaths in warring factions, watched the Roman Republic events unfold with a wry smile and gave it a standing ovation. A case of she knows, she's been there? Unlimited has its limits Inching ever closer is the Women Unlimited Leadership Summit, starring Hillary Rodham Clinton, Leigh Sales, 'some of the nation's most senior women in the Australian Public Service' and others 'leading the pursuit of progress'. Regular readers will recall this is the summit at which former prime minister Julia Gillard will be beamed on stage via hologram. Talk about boldly going where none have gone before for PM27. First her very own stage play – now this. Certain journalists have been invited to attend the event, held in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and other capitals over September 30 and October 1. Also going around: speakers including Indigenous leader and advocate Lil Gordon, Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate Rachel Noble and co-creator of the 'glass cliff' concept, Australian National University professor Michelle Ryan. We reported earlier that the starting price to attend the two-day summit varies from state to state. Ticket prices in the ACT start from $3199, in NSW $2899, and Victoria and other states $2699 – all plus GST, of course. Loading But media access to the star attraction is not proving as unlimited as we hoped. CBD has learnt that the former US secretary of state, US senator (and spouse of former president Bill Clinton) has a contract that stipulates no interviews and no media in her session. Nor, it seems, are any photos or videos allowed. Lock up those smartphones, influencers. CBD is getting strong vibes of 1956's closed session of the 20th Soviet Congress when communist party first secretary Nikita Khrushchev gave a secret speech denouncing Joseph Stalin. Or more recently, Liz Hurley 's infamous 2024 Melbourne Cup appearance, where she refused interviews apart from one brief one with rights holder Nine. As one witness reported: 'She literally grimaced in disgust when asked to speak to media on the red carpet.' Been and gone After our item last week pointed out that the Greens still had ex-leader Adam Bandt emblazoned on their website months after he lost his seat in the May election, we wondered how long it would take the party to haul the former MP off the site. The answer: sometime before midday but not before 8am, which was three hours after our column hit the internet. Even in the online age, wheels can sometimes turn slowly.
The Age
6 days ago
- The Age
ABC star's son tackles the haters of his very sweary podcast
And those haters will be delighted to hear the podcast has changed the young men's lives. They are now making a modest living off monetisation deals with Spotify and YouTube as well as their own individual sponsorships. Patricians v plebeians Shakespeare's Coriolanus tells the story of Roman soldier/tyrant Coriolanus, who when spurned by his own electorate marches on Rome seeking vengeance. The Bell Shakespeare production has come up with a cunning wheeze, dividing the audience up into noble patricians and common plebeians, in keeping with the play's themes of politics and class conflict. Who'd be attracted to such a play about a supreme egotist? Well, at the Arts Centre Melbourne premiere on Friday, the audience was thick with politicians and lawyers. Thus, Liberal senator Jane Hume, in Roman republic burgundy, found herself among the plebeians, as did rich lister and University of Melbourne chancellor Jane Hansen, and president of the council of trustees for the National Gallery of Victoria Janet Whiting, who joked that surely some mistake had been made. After the show, Bell Shakespeare chair Philip Crutchfield, KC, asked how Hume had gone sitting among the common people. She joked she could handle being the People's Princess. Having come from a federal parliament sitting week, Hume, no doubt having had her fill of sociopaths in warring factions, watched the Roman Republic events unfold with a wry smile and gave it a standing ovation. A case of she knows, she's been there? Unlimited has its limits Inching ever closer is the Women Unlimited Leadership Summit, starring Hillary Rodham Clinton, Leigh Sales, 'some of the nation's most senior women in the Australian Public Service' and others 'leading the pursuit of progress'. Regular readers will recall this is the summit at which former prime minister Julia Gillard will be beamed on stage via hologram. Talk about boldly going where none have gone before for PM27. First her very own stage play – now this. Certain journalists have been invited to attend the event, held in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and other capitals over September 30 and October 1. Also going around: speakers including Indigenous leader and advocate Lil Gordon, Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate Rachel Noble and co-creator of the 'glass cliff' concept, Australian National University professor Michelle Ryan. We reported earlier that the starting price to attend the two-day summit varies from state to state. Ticket prices in the ACT start from $3199, in NSW $2899, and Victoria and other states $2699 – all plus GST, of course. Loading But media access to the star attraction is not proving as unlimited as we hoped. CBD has learnt that the former US secretary of state, US senator (and spouse of former president Bill Clinton) has a contract that stipulates no interviews and no media in her session. Nor, it seems, are any photos or videos allowed. Lock up those smartphones, influencers. CBD is getting strong vibes of 1956's closed session of the 20th Soviet Congress when communist party first secretary Nikita Khrushchev gave a secret speech denouncing Joseph Stalin. Or more recently, Liz Hurley 's infamous 2024 Melbourne Cup appearance, where she refused interviews apart from one brief one with rights holder Nine. As one witness reported: 'She literally grimaced in disgust when asked to speak to media on the red carpet.' Been and gone After our item last week pointed out that the Greens still had ex-leader Adam Bandt emblazoned on their website months after he lost his seat in the May election, we wondered how long it would take the party to haul the former MP off the site. The answer: sometime before midday but not before 8am, which was three hours after our column hit the internet. Even in the online age, wheels can sometimes turn slowly.
