Pericles: William Shakespeare

RSC @ The Swan, Stratford Upon Avon

Runs till 21September 2024

4✩✩✩✩

Review: Roderick Dungate, AD Performance 17 August 2024.

“An episodic fantasy with a satisfying sense of unity.”

The Play Pericles is the tale of the eponymous protagonist’s journey through life; a journey that traces this totally virtuous man’s ability to find his way through wickedness, vice, and treachery to a final harmonious ending. It is a fantasy in which virtue can withstand everything and anything, and be victorious. It is likely that Shakespeare, just like us today, could see clearly that such a clear-cut victory for virtue cannot exist in the real world; his only means of celebrating this principle could only be through a fantasy.

If we view this play in this spirit it is an engaging and sometimes moving experience. A valuable experience only made possible through Alfred Enoch’s committed performance of Pericles. He is all youthful vigour, his virtue cannot be questioned, yet his ability to live fully in each moment ensures it is never, ever, sentimental. He draws us into his adventures and does not let us go from beginning to end. He controls the dynamics of his performance with great skill; time flies by.

Director, Tamara Harvey shapes this episodic tale with sensitivity, achieving with her team a satisfying sense of wholeness.

There is a neat directorial twist in which the storyteller enters the story towards the end as Marina , Pericles’ long lost, thought dead, daughter. So, it turns out, the storyteller has been telling us her own story. However , this strong device, is much weakened. Harvey with Rachelle Diedericks (Storyteller and Marina) fail to deliniate the relationship between Storyteller and audience, which is, by its very nature, different to the relationship of the character with us. As Narrator, Diedericks tends to declaim her narrative, separating us from the tale, rather than relaxing with us and speaking directly to us. In doing so, she forces the story on us, rather than sharing it. Her Marina is weakened by a continuation of this declamatory style. The final moments of the play tend towards declamation too, which is a pity.

This is a strong ensemble piece. However, among a host of strong performances , particularly notable is Christian Patterson, as King Simonides. He is kind, jovial, loving, in Patterson’s openhearted performance.

The whole is beautifully designed by Jonathan Fenson & Kinnetia Isidore using a variety of fluid and complementary fabrics. These are used to create a strong visual signature which has a unifying influence on the production.

Cast

Pericles – Alfred Enoch

Marina – Rachelle Diedericks

Helicanus – Philip Bird

Escanes – Sam Parks

Lords – Sacha Ghoshal/Kel Matsena/Emmanuel Olusanya

Antiochus – Felix Hayes

His Daughter – Chyna-Rose Fredricks

Thaliard – Miles Barrow

Cleon – Chukwuma Omambala

Dionyza – Gabby Wong

Leonine – Sam Parks

Simonides – Christian Patterson

Thaisa – Leah Haile

Cerimon – Jacqueline Boatswain

Lady of Ephesus – Miriam O’Brien

Lysimachus – Kel Matsena

Creatives

Director – Tamara Harvey

Sets – Jonathan Fenson

Costumes – Kinnetia Isidore

Lighting – Ryan Day

Somposer – Claire Van Kampen

Audio Describers – Ellie Packer/Carolyn Smith