pericles – devizine.com

by Ian Diddams
images by Chris Watkins Media, Jeni Meade.

It would be fair to say that once William Shakespeare found or invented a plot device, he wasn’t one to avoid using it again. And again. And – well… again, and again. Let’s play “Shakespeare Bingo” and “Guess the Play”…

There’s a STORM AT SEA, a SHIPWRECK, a HUSBAND is SEPARATED from his WIFE, FAMILIES are SEPARATED, each thinks the other is LOST or DEAD, somebody is thought to be DEAD but is actually ALIVE, a RULER abuses his position of POWER, there is a MAGICIAN controlling SOMEBODY, BROTHEL OWNERS, PIRATES, and in the end EVERTHING is resolved and family REUNITED.

Hmmmm. Well, it’s a tricky one. The Tempest? Twelfth Night? Comedy of Errors? Romeo and Juliet? Merchant of Venice? Othello? Winter’s Tale? Much Ado? All’s Well? Henry IV Pt 1? Measure for Measure? Cymberline? Two Gents? Hamlet?

All of these plays have at least one and often more of the attributes listed – Will liked to avoid working on new plotlines for sure. However, at the Wharf Theatre, Devizes, handily enough as it turns out, placed beside boats on the water to add even more background to a tale of watery confusions, is yet another Shakespeare play reliant on all of those points.

Pericles.

No, it’s not some sort of small whelk, or a garden perennial. It’s the story of an eponymous hero who escapes from a dodgy tyrant by running away to sea and… well, you can piece the rest together from that second paragraph and Wikipedia. Needless to say, all’s well that ends well. So to speak.

Now Pericles is not a popularly performed play. Indeed, according to a 2024 ranking of most performed Shakespearian plays it comes in 22^nd of 49 positions since 2012. So it’s a real treat to be able to see it at a local theatre which may understandably have otherwise put on one of the “Big Six” [*], and running at the same time as the same play at the RSC to boot. The Wharf is no stranger either to putting on lesser known Shakespeare of course, having shown “Measure for Measure” in 2023. One reason for this wonderful opportunity to see this play is that the director, Nic Proud, is working his way through directing the entire canon – and this is his twenty-fifth play of that list, and another is the bold and open approach of the Wharf’s artistic director John Winterton.

The play rattles along – Nic has trimmed the script to the key plot points, although as he says the play is really a series of connected moments and he has created a smooth storyline using those moments. The usual top technical team (Three Ts!) deliver effects and lighting with aplomb of course, leaving the stage ready and waiting for the actors to take us on Pericles’ voyage not only of the high seas, but of his fate and inner turmoil. The set is simply adorned with white and purple drapes, which cunningly transform into a jousting tilt barrier, and ethereal wings of the goddess Diana. A roped balcony provides some height to the set.

Our titular character is well delivered by Chris Smith, one of the four cast who have only one part to concern themselves with (has two shipwrecks!), the others being Danielle Cosh as the ethereal Thaisa (dies at sea, comes back to life!) , Louise Peak as the perspicacious Helicanus, and Nic Proud as Thaliard, stepping into the role at a late stage when an unfortunate injury to Steve Brooks saw him unable to continue – we wish Steve a speedy recovery and hope he can return to the Wharf in the future.

The other six cast members play between them a bewildering array of twenty-one other characters! That list would run to volumes but huge kudos to Abigail Baker playing Marina, Pericles daughter (lost at sea – now THERE’s a thing…), Andy Bendell as the seedy bawd (!) Pander, Tony Luscombe as the dastardly Cleon (and a sailor in a storm!), Sian Stables as even more dastardly Dionyza (and a sailor in a storm!) , Pete Wallis as the vengeful Antiochus (and a pirate!), and Debby Wilkinson as a brilliant mix of servant, bawd (!), sailor (in a storm!) and fisherman!

Nic’s scissors have created a play about the length of a football match, and which is wonderfully easy to follow – every cast member deliver the lines of Elizabethan English so well that its totally understandable and comprehensible. The costumes are totally sublime so once again chapeau (see what I did there?) to Gill Barnes and her team.

All that remains to say is take this chance to see a play most theatres and companies steer clear of. And if nothing else if you will save your self a drive to Stratford and back to see it.