Pericles
by William Shakespeare
Pericles, Prince of Tyre, suffers many hardships in his quest for a wife.
He finally wins the hand of Thaisa, Princess of Pentapolis, only to lose her in a
storm at sea. Their baby daughter, Marina, is left in the care of the King of Tarsus,
but she ends up being sold to a brothel in Mytilene. Her purity triumphs, and she
leaves to earn an honest living with the help of the governor, Lysimachus.
Pericles is eventually reunited with Marina, and with Thaisa, who has become a priestess
at the temple of Diana at Ephesus.
Although "much admired" in its own day, "Pericles" has not been performed very
frequently in recent times. It is considered by many scholars to be an inferior work
which was almost certainly written by Shakespeare in collaboration with someone else.
However poor parts of it may appear to be on the page, it works extremely well on the
stage, which is its rightful home.
|
As a director, I have tackled many plays by Shakespeare, but this has always been my
favourite production.
Much of the action involves travelling by sea, so I designed a permanent set which
suggested the stern of a Greek ship, with a shield-shaped disk at the back. The cream
and gold of the set were echoed in the clothes of Pericles and his followers, while the
various places he visited were characterised by their own coloured lighting and costumes.
I made no attempt to set the play in a particular period or place, but tried to create a
unified world from all the diverse elements.
|
"Pericles" Set: final scene
The play involves a large number of characters, so many of the cast had to play several
parts. Most of the men were dressed in cream tunics and trousers, over which they could
wear a variety of coloured robes and trimmings, while the women wore simple, white dresses
with a variety of drapes and trimmings.
The court of the incestuous King Antiochus at the start of the play was dressed entirely
in black and silver (with more than a nod in the direction of leather bondage gear!), while the temple of the goddess Diana at the end was all white and silver.
|
In between, the court of the jovial King Simonides was predominantly orange, red and gold,
while the life-preserving Cerimon was characterised by blue and silver.
The characters in the brothel scenes wore a lurid mixture of tatty materials in bright colours,
and might have strayed in from a production of "The Rocky Horror Show"!
|
|
