Edinburgh Fringe Q&A: Hilary Bell

Tell us about your show. What can audiences expect?

Summer of Harold is a triptych of short plays – two monologues and a two-hander – that in a playful and theatrical way examines how we grasp, and learn to release, the things that bind us. It’s theatre at its leanest: with no set, two actors embody several very different characters to tell stories, enlisting the audience to travel in their imaginations to three distinct worlds. We begin in the home of Harold Pinter and Lady Antonia Fraser, where backpacker Janet finds herself working as a housekeeper in the summer of ‘84. Next, Gareth takes us on a frenzied and furious tour of his youth, spent in the shadow of his rival ceramicist. And finally, Rae and Jonathan meet at a lookout in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney, to grapple with the resolution of a long and complicated relationship.

Can you talk about some of the creative team involved?

Damien Ryan is among Australia’s most beloved and respected directors. Best known for his classics company Sport for Jove, he works for all the major companies directing a great diversity of plays. He is also a writer/adaptor. His work is celebrated for its hallmark inventiveness, its rough energy, and the way it delights equally in language, physicality, and enlisting audiences’ imaginations. 

Berynn Schwerdt was in my second play, in 1992, at drama school, playing an 11-year-old Chinese giant. We worked together again last year, when he played an ibis in my children’s musical. He is one of Sydney’s hardest-working actors, equally adept at physical comedy, the classics, and everything in between. In fact, last year he had to strip off his ibis costume and literally run to appear as Lord Capulet in Damien’s Romeo and Juliet across town. 

Lucia Mastrantone is the other of Sydney’s hardest-working actors. Like Berynn, she can do anything. She just finished an acclaimed performance as Callas in Masterclass; she is a consummate comedienne, she’s an expert physical theatre artist, and has shone in both classics and new work, appearing at all the major theatres in Australia and internationally.

Where do you draw inspiration from for your work, both in terms of creation and performance?

For me as a playwright, it can come from anywhere. The titular play of the triptych is based on a true story, told to me by Margaret Woodward. In 1984, she and her friend Megan backpacked from Tasmania to London and did indeed work briefly as housekeepers for the Pinters. It can come from reading non-fiction and fairy tales, from conversations or images. Many years ago I saw a mother and her large teenage son holding hands crossing a road, and that image was the kernel of Lookout, the third piece.

Do you tend to take inspiration from events happening in the world around you in terms of your work? Do you think artists have a responsibility to respond to what's happening?

My inspiration doesn’t come from the headlines, it’s more personal than that. Certainly elements of the culture often become part of the context, but I’m generally more interested in the intimate, in how human beings relate to each other, and in the timeless myths that we keep finding new ways to tell. Artists have a responsibility to tell the emotional truth as they experience it – whether that happens to be about current events or falling in love – and to do it in a way that’s entertaining and imaginative.

What’s next for you and how are you feeling about the future in general?

Musical theatre is a grand passion of mine, and I’m lucky enough to be working on two right now. One is an adaptation of the iconic Australian story Picnic at Hanging Rock, on which I’m collaborating with composer Greta Gertler Gold and director Jo Bonney. We are looking at premiering off-West End in late 2025. The other is a show about Pavarotti for UK production company Scenario Two, with composer Jacob Collier and director Michael Gracey. In scale, these are at the opposite end of the spectrum from Summer of Harold. I love toggling between the micro and the macro. 

How can Edinburgh audiences keep up with you beyond the festival?

I have a website – hilarybell.org – that is always lagging a bit behind, but I am hereby resolving to do better from now on!