Pericles

by William Shakespeare (and George Wilkins)

seen at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on 24 March 2016

Dominic Dromgoole directs James Garnon (Pericles), Jessica Baglow (Marina), Dorothea Myer-Bennett (Thaisa and Dionyza), Simon Armstrong (Antiochus and Simonides), Fergal McElherron (Helicanus and the Pander), Dennis Herdman (Bolt), Kirsty Woodward (Lychorida and the Bawd), Steffan Donnelly (Lysimachus) and Shiela Reid (Gower) as part of a season of Shakespeare's four 'romance' plays.

Pericles, the only play commonly attributed to Shakespeare but not included in the First Folio edition of his plays, is actually a collaboration, and the text is thought to be woefully defective in certain places. However, despite its episodic and even disjointed plot, and its reliance on fantastical coincidences and unlikely turns of events, it can be a very satisfactory theatrical experience.

So it proves here, as once again the apparent limitations of an intimate theatre lit only by candles are wonderfully overcome to present several sea voyages and a terrifying shipwreck, and various locations around the Mediterranean as Pericles wanders from his home city of Tyre to Antioch, Tarsus, 'Pentapolis', Mytilene and Ephesus. (It is perhaps a little odd to have opened the play with a sea-shanty about the Bay of Biscay, which has no relevance to the story.) Most of the cast take on subordinate roles as well as their named parts, but distinctions of place are maintained by simple but effective colour coding and clearly distinct styles of costume. Considering the speed of some of the costume changes, this is quite a feat.

The Pericles of James Garnon is a noble prince much put upon by events. His experience runs from outrage at iniquity through generosity of spirit to happy marriage, then bereavement only just mollified by the birth of a daughter; when she too is reported dead he recedes into complete and unkempt silence. Only the unlooked for appearance of Marina, his daughter, restores his sanity.

All around him, the best and worst of humanity is presented to us through Gower's connecting narrative. The point is underlined by the clever double casting of roles, so that Simon Armstrong portrays the best and worst of fathers, Dorothea Myer-Bennett the best and worst of wives and mothers, Fergal McElheron the best and worse of 'managers' (the regent of Tyre and the Pander in a whorehouse).

The story is appropriately played for its sensational and at times absurd character; indulgent laughter was a great way to overcome the implausibility, and Pericles's own amazement at the turn of events nicely reflected out own astonishments. At the same time, the scenes between the Pander, the Bawd and Bolt were amongst the funniest I have seen, despite the seriousness of the threat to Marina whom they all relish as a new recruit to their trade until, to their dismay, she manages to preserve her virtue and virginity. But, balancing all the comedy and misadventure, the recognition scene between Pericles and Marina was genuinely touching.

Having praised the production of Cymbeline in this same series, I now must say that Pericles at least equalled it. Fascinating that the two less familiar and technically more awkward plays should have been the most successful of the four.