Liv and I wanted to see one of the Cambridge Shakespeare plays this summer. The selection didn't have many we really wanted to see, so we ended up seeing Peracles, and I'm really glad we did.
Cambridge Shakespeare have often made some of the lesser-known, honestly less good plays really fun, and that's what they did here. Pericles is described as "at least partly by Shakespeare": I think roughly the "Pericles sails around having adventures" is by someone else, and "everyone is lost at sea and thinks each other dead, then, surprise, they're reunited without knowing who each other are" is by Shakespeare :)
Antioch
It starts off with Pericles, prince of Tyre (eastern Mediterranean), visiting nearly Antioch (just to the North). The king has a beautiful, accomplished, and widely admired daughter, but is violently protective of her, and has decreed that no-one may court her unless they answer his (secret) riddle, but if they guess wrong, they will be executed.
Pericles rocks up, says, "that sounds like a good deal", and then SURPRISE, it turns out NOT to be a good idea.
(Content Warning: incest mentioned in next paragraph)
The riddle turns out to be, basically, "incest, but in verse form". Pericles explains at length to the audience that answering the riddle will cause the king to have him executed out of hand just as much as failing to answer. Instead, he *hints* that he knows, but asks for more time to think about it.
For some reason, the king, ashamed of his sin, and equally willing to execute suitors for guessing, or not guessing, the riddle, is too embarrassed to have him executed for *maybe* guessing the riddle, and agrees to the delay.
Pericles wasting no time, as soon as he's outside the palace, immediately flies back to Tyre.
The king is outraged by this deception, and -- belatedly -- sends an assassin after him.
Tyre
The narrator was amazing. She was dressed up like a cross between a headmistress and a clown, lecturing the audience about all the things they were supposed to know. The back of the stage had a chalk-board divided into six sectors with all the relevant places on (including "the sea" with waves) and a little pointer which span round. Whenever the narrator announced a place, she turned the pointer, and whenever the scene changed without narration, she came on stage to turn it, or crept up from behind, just to keep everyone oriented with where they were.
Pericles immediately sort counsel with his Loyal Underling Ruling In Pericles' Absence Whose Name I Forget. LURIPAWNIF said, running away had been a smart move, well done, but maybe having announced yourself as "Pericles of Tyre" don't just sit around in Tyre waiting for assassins, but make like Sir Robin and split.
I was positively convinced this guy was going to stab him in the back or something, but no, he was genuinely committed to ruling Tyre fairly, but letting Pericles have all the glory and handing everything back to him whenever he turned up again. Later on, we have a brief scene in Tyre where various nobles call on him to have the crown, and he says, no, wait five years before we give up on the Big P.
Pericles takes the advice and takes some ships and men and sails off for adventure.
And by "adventure" we apparently mean "loading up with grain and sailing somewhere with a famine".
TBC.
Cambridge Shakespeare have often made some of the lesser-known, honestly less good plays really fun, and that's what they did here. Pericles is described as "at least partly by Shakespeare": I think roughly the "Pericles sails around having adventures" is by someone else, and "everyone is lost at sea and thinks each other dead, then, surprise, they're reunited without knowing who each other are" is by Shakespeare :)
Antioch
It starts off with Pericles, prince of Tyre (eastern Mediterranean), visiting nearly Antioch (just to the North). The king has a beautiful, accomplished, and widely admired daughter, but is violently protective of her, and has decreed that no-one may court her unless they answer his (secret) riddle, but if they guess wrong, they will be executed.
Pericles rocks up, says, "that sounds like a good deal", and then SURPRISE, it turns out NOT to be a good idea.
(Content Warning: incest mentioned in next paragraph)
The riddle turns out to be, basically, "incest, but in verse form". Pericles explains at length to the audience that answering the riddle will cause the king to have him executed out of hand just as much as failing to answer. Instead, he *hints* that he knows, but asks for more time to think about it.
For some reason, the king, ashamed of his sin, and equally willing to execute suitors for guessing, or not guessing, the riddle, is too embarrassed to have him executed for *maybe* guessing the riddle, and agrees to the delay.
Pericles wasting no time, as soon as he's outside the palace, immediately flies back to Tyre.
The king is outraged by this deception, and -- belatedly -- sends an assassin after him.
Tyre
The narrator was amazing. She was dressed up like a cross between a headmistress and a clown, lecturing the audience about all the things they were supposed to know. The back of the stage had a chalk-board divided into six sectors with all the relevant places on (including "the sea" with waves) and a little pointer which span round. Whenever the narrator announced a place, she turned the pointer, and whenever the scene changed without narration, she came on stage to turn it, or crept up from behind, just to keep everyone oriented with where they were.
Pericles immediately sort counsel with his Loyal Underling Ruling In Pericles' Absence Whose Name I Forget. LURIPAWNIF said, running away had been a smart move, well done, but maybe having announced yourself as "Pericles of Tyre" don't just sit around in Tyre waiting for assassins, but make like Sir Robin and split.
I was positively convinced this guy was going to stab him in the back or something, but no, he was genuinely committed to ruling Tyre fairly, but letting Pericles have all the glory and handing everything back to him whenever he turned up again. Later on, we have a brief scene in Tyre where various nobles call on him to have the crown, and he says, no, wait five years before we give up on the Big P.
Pericles takes the advice and takes some ships and men and sails off for adventure.
And by "adventure" we apparently mean "loading up with grain and sailing somewhere with a famine".
TBC.