Pericles

Play (1608)
by William Shakespeare
(and George Wilkins?)

With Paula Plum (Gower, Cerimon), Jesse Hinson (Pericles), Gabriel Kuttner (Antiochus, Boult), Elizabeth Rimar (Daughter of Antiochus, Marina), Omar Robinson (Thaliard, Leonine, Fisherman, Knight, Sailor, Pirate), Johnny Lee Davenport (Helicanus, Fisherman, Knight, Sailor, Pirate), Johnnie McQuarley (Lord, Lysimachus,Fisherman, Knight, Sailor, Pirate), Michael Forden Walker (Cleon, Simonides), Tamara Hickey (Dionyza), Kathryn Lynch (Thaisa), Bobbie Steinbach (Lychorida, Bawd)

Pericles (Jesse Hinson) comes to woo the daughter (Elizabeth Rimar) of Antiochus (Gabriel Kuttner) and realizes that something fishy is going on between them. Whoops! X-rated stuff here, and Pericles flees the scene with Antiochus sending Thaliard (Omar Robinson) in hot pursuit to off him before word gets out about the wrongdoings at home.

En route, Pericles encounters another, better king, Simonides (Michael Forden Walker), whose daughter, Thaisa (Kathryn Lynch), he does win. But, alas, in taking his leave with her, he falls into sea trouble. The daughter Pericles and Thaisa have just spawned appears to be washed away, and Thaisa dead as well; but here, as in much of romantic Shakespeare, not all is as it seems.

Pericles gets old and grieves, but, as in The Winter’s Tale, things, and people, unexpectedly reveal themselves.

This play is a bit of a cut and paste job, as though the Cliff Notes people got to edit one of Shakespeare’s manuscripts. In fact, its authorship is contested, now thought to be in part written by someone other than Shakespeare, likely George Wilkins. Shakespeare presumably was responsible for only the latter half, and it shows.

It is not a bad play, with some nice poetry and many conventional elements of other Shakespeare plays. However, one realizes, while watching it, that what makes the great Shakespearean plays great is a kind of deftness in the transitions. Here, the transitions are quite blunt, making for a patchwork quilt of a story.

Heavily reliant on the narrator, Gower (Paula Plum), the play manages to convey its narrative, but one would likely be lost without that support. Plum is beautifully dramatic and full of sweep and flair in the role, but it is a kind of puppeteer’s position, trying to keep up what does not quite stand on its own.

That being said, the Actors’ Shakespeare Project, one of the finest games in town, has done a great job of pulling things together and making a good production out of a less than great Shakespearean play.

The cast is populated by a great set of established ASP stars.

Paula Plum, recently superb in the Lyric Stage’s 33 Variations, does an entrancing job as Gower, the singular chorus, declaiming the narrative steps with a kind of Gandalfian flair, sweeping her robed arms with a magician’s grandeur.

Gabriel Kuttner is a simmeringly sinister Antiochus, exhibiting, in contrast to his recent solo comedic tour de force at the New Repertory Theatre, Fully Committed, his considerable range.

Michael Forden Walker, a wonderfully versatile ASP veteran, is a hilarious Simonides, ribbingly jocular and mock-threatening in turns, and a most capable Cleon to boot.

Johnny Lee Davenport is a robust Helicanus, and many other things.

Johnnie McQuarley, a real star a a stand-in at the New Repertory Theatre’s production of David Mamet’s Race last fall, does a creditable job here as Lysimachus and a series of other roles.

Omar Robinson, who was featured in the stirring production of Superior Donuts at the Lyric Stage last year, is unsettling effective as the assassin Thaliard, and in miscellaneous other choral supports.

Bobbie Steinbach, is, as ever, a wonderful presence, here playing the matron of a brothel, Lychorida, with charmingly lurid grace.

There are also a bunch of highly competent ASP relative newcomers.

Jesse Hinson, as Pericles, has a boyish energy and innocence at the outset that devolves into convincing aging isolation. Elizabeth Rimar as Marina is a nobly erect and has a fantastic voice. Atvarious points she sings in modal harmonies with Tamara Hickey (who also plays Cleon’s dastardly queen, Dionyza) with utterly beautiful results. Kathryn Lynch is a magnetically captivating Thaisa.

The production values are highly effective and produce a sense of intimacy in this conventional theatrical space. The ASP frequently performs very effectively in non-standard spaces, but its Antony and Cleopatra, done here a couple of years ago, did not quite achieve that sense of intimacy. It was
nice to see them back here in style.

– BADMan