PS: John Bell back on the boards after fall

Just as King Lear came back from the wilderness, Sydney's most acclaimed Shakespearean actor John Bell has started making his first tentative steps back into the public domain after a serious fall in February.

Bell was seen recently at the Recital Hall wearing what appeared to be a large neck brace.

PS understands Bell stumbled on uneven stone steps at his home on the idyllic Bouddi Peninsula on the Central Coast which left him with serious spinal injuries. He also suffered a gashed head, four broken ribs and two breaks in a vertebrae, high in his neck.

There were grave fears the actor would ever walk again, however friends told PS his recovery, while slow, is looking promising.

As a result of his injuries Bell has worn a rigid iron neck and chest brace.

"Ten weeks of that torture would try the patience of a sleepy oyster, never mind a retiree ... and John Bell's idea of retirement leaves people half his age gasping in his wake," friend Helen Menzies from Wagstaffe-Killcare Community Association said of the actor.

"Since leaving the management of Bell Shakespeare, the company he founded and inspired for 25 years, John has had a non-stop schedule of acting and directing, and involvement with the Bouddi Arts Foundation," Ms Menzies said.

"Even a 10-week pause and the rehab that will follow won't stand in the way of John directing the production of Carmen that will be staged at the Opera House from mid-June."

Bell's daughters Lucy and Hillary and wife Anna have been caring for the actor and providing a "welcome distraction".