The stage of Pericles is an old, dilapidated temple, with crumbling pillars and ripped up floor tiles. Bowls, statues and other artifacts are strewn about like the rubble itself and at the centre of it all is an altar at which a covered figure chants while the opening music fills the room.
Following this, we meet Cerimon (David Warburton) who has hired a local brothel girl to help him make healing potions to mend the ailing king Pericles. As they work, Cerimon begins to tell the story of how the great king came into such misfortune and suffering, using statues found around the temple as characters and stacked pots for a set.
The experience of watching what is essentially the exposition acted out with puppets is quite a surreal experience, and at first was uncomfortable to watch. Though used for a few good jokes and evidently building on the largely fun tone which was to follow, there was still a bit of an uneasy adjustment period. Thankfully this quickly dispelled when the transition from statues to actors was made and the true brilliance of the set and costume design was brought into full realization.
Within Cerimon's tale, all of the actors are coated in white, uneven makeup, with an aged quality given to their clothes and props to make them look like the stone figures being used. Similarly, the large sheet, which is used very creatively as everything from a ship to a horse, is patterned in this way. It all gives the performance the perspective of being imagined by the brothel girl who sits by and watches as these stone men and women enact a history slowly leading up to her present circumstances.
This is a brilliant device which adds a crucial layer to a production already full of cinematic flare. Throughout, the lights and music are ever present to accentuate and underline crucial moments, or elaborate on the mystical tone which saturates everything.
Kamyar Pazandeh makes for a strong Pericles who has no trouble commanding the stage with the kind of presence demanded of an Ancient Greek hero and he is met on all sides by an apt group of actors who never falter in delivering an exuberant, sometimes deliberately hammy rendition of Shakespeare's play.
Really the biggest issue with the play rests with Shakespeare himself. Pericles never remotely reaches the heights of classics like Hamlet or Othello, and several times comes across as just ridiculous. The last act in particular, one which is evidently intended to be powerfully emotional, seems to be as campy and melodramatic as a soap opera.
The good that comes of this is that no one, not even the actors, takes it too seriously, and when the audience laughs at the unintentionally funny, they take it in stride. Since this is a lesser-known play with a much more adventurous, operatic plot, there was less pressure to make something profound. Instead, Pericles is fun and beautiful to watch.
Pericles will be performed until September 18. Tickets are available here.
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