“Dramaturgically we live in such a film age where logic is so important to us, and a sense of A + B must equal C. Whereas the ways that Shakespeare put his plays together is much more open-ended. They are not about answers, they are full of ambiguity so each generation can find themselves in it because he doesn’t lock things down, he doesn’t seal them up.” – Peter Evans, Artist Director, Bell Shakespeare.

In this episode I ask Peter Evans, does our desire for a conclusive ending stand in the way of our ability to truly interpret and make meaning in the world?

Complexity is not a barrier, rather it is the jumping-off point to begin to understand problems. One of the masters of creating layers of complexity in stories was Shakespeare. In my conversation with Peter Evans, we peel back the layers of how to capture and examine the blurry grey areas, the place where we must venture if we ever hope to move the dial on complex societal problems.

How does Shakespeare use tools like character to create meaning from complexity? And what role does empathy play in this process? We also look at the relationship between design thinking and creating a performance, there are some surprising similarities!

Australian born and New Zealand raised Peter Evans was appointed Co-Artistic Director by Founding Artistic Director John Bell in 2012. He is the first person to share, and then take on in 2016, the Artistic Director title and duties since Bell Shakespeare was founded in 1990. Peter’s directing credits The Give and Take (Sydney Theatre Company); Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, King Lear, Copenhagen, Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Theatre Jamb at the Bondi Pavilion); Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Theatre Adami at the Stables) and The Dumb Waiter (Studio Company at Belvoir St Theatre).

In 2010, Evans returned to Bell Shakespeare and has since directed new versions of Julius Caesar (2011), Macbeth (2012), Phèdre (2013), Tartuffe (2014), The Dream (2014), As You Like It (2015), Romeo And Juliet (2016), Othello (2016), Richard 3 (2017), Antony and Cleopatra (2018), The Miser (2019) and would have directed the 2020 productions of Hamlet and The Comedy of Errors if the productions would have gone ahead.

Learn more about Peter Evan’s work with Bell Shakespeare here - www.bellshakespeare.com.au/our-story/t…are-family/

If you wish to make a charitable donation to Bell Shakespeare you can do so here - shop.bellshakespeare.com.au/donate/contribute1

Learn more about my work with narrative at www.spendloveandlamb.com

or visit www.storiescreate.me for more information on this podcast.

Listen on iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/stories-create-me/id1437980600?mt=2Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/megan-davis/stories-create-me?refid=stpr Google Play -https://play.google.com/music/listen?t=Stories_Create_Me&pcampaignid=MKT-na-all-co-pr-mu-pod-16&u=0&view=/ps/Iiujq7aodrkgety3kpxjqezhaja