“the French ensemble surge through the action at an almighty speed”
Pericles, Prince of Tyre is one of Shakespeare’s plays that often gets overlooked. Having been left out of the First Folio, perhaps due to its shoddy textual structure, or for the fact it was written in collaboration (George Wilkins is said to have written the first two acts), certainly makes it one of the Bard’s most unfamiliar, and strangest, works. The world-renowned Cheek By Jowl, return to the UK with their French offshoot of the company, bringing a fresh and imaginative interpretation of the seafaring story of Pericles. The frenzied and chaotic tale, that jumps from Mediterranean coastline to coastline is given much needed clarity and reasoning by this French-speaking production.
Set entirely within the aqua-blue walls of a single hospital room, Director Declan Donnellan turns the tempestuous scenes of shipwrecks, brothels, murders, and tournaments, into the feverish dreams of a sick Pericles. Through his hallucinated adventures, doctors and hospital staff transfigure into the fisherman, kidnappers, or, royalty that are required to play out the unfortunate events that Pericles encounters from the original text. The somewhat ludicrous plotlines, particularly with wife Thaisa and daughter Marina, seem marginally more plausible within this production, with the given context of it being a dream. We all know how bizarre dreams can be!
By Donnellan gutting fair chunks of the play, especially the dense and wordy speeches written by Wilkins, the French ensemble surge through the action at an almighty speed. This condensed version coming in at an hour and forty minutes seems much more palatable. This does not mean we lose any emotional gravitas. The hyperventilating pace finds peaks and troughs, with the plays heart rate slowing down almost to a halt for the climatic reunion of Pericles and Marina. By far one of Shakespeare’s most moving scenes, Christophe Grégoire, as Pericles, demonstrates the truthful flood of emotions felt by a father with a long-lost child. A scene that certainly tugs on the old heartstrings.
It is the first time Cheek By Jowl has produced Shakespeare in the French language and it works extremely well with Pericles. Speedily reading the surtitles that are spat out at a tremendous rate only adds to the already sea-sickening, yet thrilling, speed of proceedings. The whole cast give praiseworthy turns, using strenuous physicality to rip through the ever-changing scenes. This whirlwind of a play certainly leaves you feeling windswept, if not a little giddy.
“the music kept the action pacey, and the audience on their toes”
Controlled Chaos Theatre’s all-female Tempest was a charming, well-shaped piece of storytelling, in which all the cast clearly believed. Arriving at the Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, the reception by staff was warm and friendly. It was wonderful to see a diverse mix of ages in the audience, which I hope the company’s interpretation continues to attract. A strong and supportive cast each had moments of sparkling stage presence, and director Dylan Lincoln clearly cares about the importance of Shakespeare’s carefully created characters. It is well-worth a watch.
Immediately from the opening scene, in which all the soon-to-be shipwrecked characters sing a brawling sailor song, the audience was immersed in the world of the play. Pretty and often clean visual direction made the piece very watchable: a highlight was the beginning, when the sailors played the unison motion of a storm-tossed boat. I couldn’t help feeling that the eerie wedding scene needed a bit more jollity, but, overall, striking signposts kept all in the auditorium engaged.
Occasionally, there were line blunders; and where some actors channelled nuance into their performances, others seemed to be reciting, more than playing with conviction. Compelling performances by Carmella Brown’s magnetic Ariel; Kate Sketchley’s powerfully tragic and masterfully oratorical Caliban; and nimbly played comic duos, Trinculo & Stephano and Sebastian & Antonio, anchored the piece. Jo Bartlett’s Prospero balanced tyranny and sympathy convincingly. Michelle Pittoni as Miranda and Hannah Jessop as Ferdinand were an irresistible pair of lovers, which delighted the audience. The especially detailed pair interactions between all cast members are where this production really came into its own.
The subtle, well-executed costume and set design communicated the island setting to the audience: fishing nets woven with shells hung on the walls; the playing space was punctuated by small logs; and the back of the stage had painted green accents to suggest foliage. The lighting design was simple, but effectively communicated tonal shifts, and aided the creation of Prospero’s dreamlike microcosm. Sound was used more-or-less throughout, with some scenes even being underscored. This is a very pleasing choice, for a script which is so musical. Live music offerings, arranged by Michael Halliday, were beautiful and often entrancingly eerie, Ariel’s flute and lilting folk songs being the deftest touch. Some of the sound design was a little derivative: here, the magical ambiguity of the world could have been trusted a bit more, and decisions could have been bolder. However, the music kept the action pacey, and the audience on their toes.
Although the cast was all-female, all the masculine pronouns in the text were not altered. Trinculo and Stephano played to male, ‘laddy’ stereotypes. The company aims ‘to try to redress the balance of British theatre, by encouraging more people from diverse backgrounds to engage with the theatre world, both on stage and off, including giving women a chance to take centre stage in the male dominated classics’. This is certainly an urgent and important ethos, but altering the pronouns of the text would have perhaps carried the choice to cast all women to the next level, thus deepening the interpretation. That said, this is a considerate and joyous staging of an entrancing and unwieldy play.
