THE BELLS Park Theatre

Leopold Lewis’s The Bells, which opened at the Lyceum on the 25th November 1871 and ran for 151 performances, was a major turning point in Henry Irving’s career, a sensational triumph, bringing him lasting fame. All my theatregoing life I have longed to see it performed but feared it would only be revived to be laughed at. Audiences automatically presume melodrama is not to be taken seriously and that they are meant to laugh, boo the villain and cheer the heroine. Andrew Shepherd as the hallucinating murderer proves conclusively that The Bells can be acted without any laughter and that it deserves the full theatrical and financial resources the National Theatre and the RSC could bring to it.