Reviewed by James Karas
Pericles has had a rough
ride since it was first produced around 1608 at the Globe Theatre. Its fate has
swung from one of the most popular of Shakespeare’s (and collaborator George
Wilkins’) plays to one of the most ignored. It has joined the repertoire for
the time being and suffice it to say that it has its admirers and its detractors
as a theatrical piece.
I confess that I have not been
able to warm up to its episodic plot of storms at sea and the dead coming back
to life. And who can keep a straight face about Marina’s escapades and
Pericles’ adventures around the eastern Mediterranean.
James Garnon as Pericles with Jessica Baglow as Marina.
Photo: Marc Brenner
Shakespeare’s Globe has
fearlessly staged a production of the play in the small Sam Wanamaker
Playhouse, directed by Dominic Dromgoole. It may be as good as one can get.
Pericles is introduced by the
rather tiresome Gower, the Chorus. He appears at the beginning of each act and
he is perhaps essential to keep us on route in the travelogue through the
years. Gower is played by Sheila Reid who, I want to be polite, can be heard
most of the time and perhaps that is enough for the role.
James Garmon makes a muscular,
assertive and fine Pericles. By the end of the play he appears tired and after
what he has been through, no wonder. Dorothea Myer-Bennett plays the appreciative
Dionyza who later turns murderous, and the lovely Thaisa. Jessica Baglow plays
the saintly goody two-shoes Marina, the daughter of Pericles, who is abducted
by nasty pirates, ends up in a brothel and comes out virtuous and angelic.
After Pericles is washed up on
the shore of Pentapolis and the waves bring in his armour, he goes to the court
of King Simonides (Simon Armstrong). A number of knights contend for the hand
of Thaisa and the notable part about the scene is the noise that Dromgoole
generates. Clanging, screaming yelling. There are a number of loud noises like
that throughout the evening.
The set of Designer Jonathan
Fensum is minimal. The most outstanding feature is the use of chandeliers. The
Playhouse has an Upper Level and many of the spectators were forced to find the
actors and the action through the chandeliers. You had to bend backward, lean
forward, and stretch sideways to see the action on the stage below. The theatre
is supposed to represent a 17th century indoor playhouse but Dromgoole
or someone else should have glanced at what it looks like from the upper level.
This was not a fortuitous
situation for changing my opinion about the play. Too many ingredients did not
work to make the evening at the theatre a success.
I should mention in fairness that
most of the audience seemed to react more positively than I did but they
probably did not have to contend with a chandelier.
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