Pericles, Prince of Tyre

The editors of the Oxford and Arden editions of Pericles accept Wilkins as Shakespeare's collaborator, citing stylistic links between the play and Wilkins's style that are found nowhere else in Shakespeare.^[4] The Cambridge editors reject this contention, arguing that the play is entirely by Shakespeare and that all the oddities can be defended as a deliberately old-fashioned style; however, they do not discuss the stylistic links with Wilkins's work or any of the scholarly papers demonstrating contrary opinions.^[2] If the play was co-written or revised by Wilkins, this would support a later date, as it is believed Wilkins' career as a writer spanned only the years 1606-8.^[13] The 1986 Oxford University Press edition of the Complete Works and the subsequent individual edition include a "reconstructed text" of Pericles, which adapts passages from Wilkins' novel on the assumption that they are based on the play and record the dialogue more accurately than the quarto.

The play has been recognised as a probable collaboration since 1709, if not earlier. In that year Nicholas Rowe wrote, "there is good Reason to believe that the greatest part of that Play was not written by him; tho' it is own'd, some part of it certainly was, particularly the last Act."^[14] Rowe here seems to be summarising what he believes to be a consensus view in his day, although some critics thought it was either an early Shakespeare work or not written by him at all.^[6] Wilkins has been proposed as the co-author since 1868.^[15] In 1919, H. Dugdale Sykes published a detailed comparison of numerous parallels between the first half of Pericles and four of Wilkins's works, but he thought that Wilkins's novelisation of the play preceded its composition.^[6] Many other scholars followed Sykes in his identification of Wilkins, most notably Jonathan Hope in 1994 and MacDonald P. Jackson in 1993 and 2003.^[16] In 2002, Prof. Brian Vickers summarised the historical evidence and took the Cambridge editors to task for ignoring more than a century of scholarship.^[6]

Analysis and criticism

Critical response to the play has traditionally been mixed. In 1629, Ben Jonson lamented the audiences' enthusiastic responses to the play:

No doubt some mouldy tale,
Like Pericles; and stale
As the Shrieve's crusts, and nasty as his fish—
Scraps out of every dish
Throwne forth, and rak't into the common tub (Ben Jonson, Ode (to Himself))

In 1660, at the start of the

After Jonson and until the mid-twentieth century, critics found little to like or praise in the play. For example, nineteenth-century scholar Edward Dowden wrestled with the text and found that the play "as a whole is singularly undramatic" and "entirely lacks unity of action."^[17] The episodic nature of the play combined with the Act Four's lewdness troubled Dowden because these traits problematised his idea of Shakespeare. Dowden also banished Titus Andronicus from the canon because it belonged to "the pre-Shakespearean school of bloody dramas".^[17]

T. S. Eliot found more to admire, saying of the moment of Pericles' reunion with his daughter: "To my mind the finest of all the 'recognition scenes' is Act V, sc. i of that very great play Pericles. It is a perfect example of the 'ultra-dramatic', a dramatic action of beings who are more than human... or rather, seen in a light more than that of day." ^{[citation needed]}

The New Bibliographers of the early twentieth century

Harold Bloom said that the play works well on the stage despite its problems,^[19] and even wrote, "Perhaps because he declined to compose the first two acts, Shakespeare compensated by making the remaining three acts into his most radical theatrical experiment since the mature Hamlet of 1600–1601."^[20]

Performance history

The

Walter Nugent Monck revived the play in 1929 at his Maddermarket Theatre in Norwich, cutting the first act. This production was revived at Stratford after the war, with Paul Scofield in the title role.

Modern revivals

The play has risen somewhat in popularity since Monck, though it remains extraordinarily difficult to stage effectively, an aspect played with in Paris Belongs to Us (filmed 1957–1960).

• In 1958,
  Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford. The scene design, by Loudon Sainthill,^[21] unified the play; the stage was dominated by a large ship in which Gower related the tale to a group of sailors. Geraldine McEwan played Marina; Richard Johnson was Pericles; and Mark Dignam was Simonides. Angela Baddeley
  was the Bawd. The production was a success; it was later viewed as a model for "coherent" or thematically unified approaches, in contrast to the postmodern or disintegrative approaches of the seventies and eighties.

• The 1969 production by Terry Hands at Stratford also received favourable reviews. The set was almost bare, with a hanging replica of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man above a bare stage. Hands also introduced extensive doubling, which has since become a staple of productions of this play. Emrys James played Gower (as a Welsh bard) and Helicanus. Susan Fleetwood doubled Thaisa and Marina (with Susan Sheers playing Marina when the two characters appear together in the final scene).^[4] Ian Richardson played the title role. For the performances on the nights of the Apollo landing, Hands added a special acknowledgment of the event to Gower's lines.

• Ron Daniels directed the play in 1979 at The Other Place, an unlikely venue for such an expansive play. Daniels compensated for the lack of space by canny use of lighting and offstage music and sound effects. Peter McEnery played Pericles; Julie Peasgood was Marina. Griffith Jones was Gower.

• The play was among those adapted for the BBC Television Shakespeare series and was first transmitted on 8 December 1984. The play was opened out so as to deal with the various locations and time intervals and was given a thoughtful and moving interpretation. Mike Gwilym played Pericles, Amanda Redman was Marina and Juliet Stevenson was Thaisa. It was directed by David Jones.

• In 1989, David Thacker directed the play at the
  Swan. The production was centred on a grid-covered trap suspended in air; the brothel scenes were played below, as in a basement; the shipboard scenes were played on and around the grid. Rudolph Walker was Gower, dressed as a bureaucrat; Nigel Terry
  played Pericles, and Suzan Sylvester and Sally Edwards were Marina and Thaisa, respectively.

• Productions in the 1990s differed from earlier productions in that they generally stressed the dislocation and diversity inherent in the play's setting, rather than striving for thematic and tonal coherence. As early as 1983,
  American homeless people; devices such as these dominated English main stages in the nineties. Phyllida Lloyd directed the play at the Royal National Theatre in 1994. The production used extensive doubling. Kathryn Hunter
  played Antiochus, Cerimon, and the Bawd. The production made extensive use of the mechanised wheel in the theatre to emphasise movement in time and space; however, the wheel's noise made some scenes difficult to hear, and some critics disparaged what they saw as pointless gimmickry in the staging.

• Adrian Noble's 2002 production at the Roundhouse (his last before leaving the RSC) stressed diversity in another way. Responding to critical interest in Orientalism, Noble accentuated the multicultural aspects of the play's setting. Ray Fearon took the title role to Lauren Ward's Thaisa; Kananu Kirimi played Marina. Brian Protheroe was Gower. In an echo of the music played during the interval of the 1619 Whitehall performance, Noble featured belly dancing and drumming during the intermission of his production.

• Mary Zimmerman directed Pericles at Washington D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre Company for their 2004–05 Season. The production transferred to Chicago's Goodman Theatre in 2006.

• The
  Gower as a direct story teller of the action in medieval costume vs. the Greek/Turkish garb of the main cast. Fair's production took a more dream like approach using a variety of international music and devised movement pieces to convey the Gower dialogue.^[22][23]

• Joseph Haj directed several productions of Pericles from 2008 to 2016: at the PlayMakers Repertory Company in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 2008; at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015; and at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2016—his inaugural production as artistic director of that institution.^[24]

• The 2015 Shakespeare's Globe production directed by Dominic Dromgoole used a minimal set within the tiny, candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Sheila Reid played Gower and James Garnon played Pericles. The production was noted for its humor.^[25]
• Cesear's Forum, Cleveland's
  minimalist theatre company at Playhouse Square, deconstructed the play in an adaptation entitled Perhaps, Pericles. Four actors in search of Shakespeare was the nub of this 2013 production.^[26]

• There have been four important productions of "Pericles" mounted at The Stratford Festival in Stratford, Canada. In 1973 there was a production directed by Jean Gascon that was repeated in 1974; there were later productions, respectively in 1986, 2003, and the latest in 2015. Both the 1973 and 1974 productions had the same cast, headed by Stratford stars, Nicholas Pennel and Martha Henry; the 1986 production was directed by Richard Ouzounian and starred Geraint Wyn Davies and Goldie Semple; the 2003 production was directed by Leon Rubin and starred Jonathan Goad; and in 2015 the director was Scott Wentworth and starred Evan Buliung. The 2015 production was filmed by CBC Television for the Shakespearean film series CBC Presents the Stratford Festival.

• The Theatre for a New Audience in New York City staged a production in early 2016 directed by Trevor Nunn with Christian Camargo as Pericles. Nunn utilized a generally bare stage but with more elaborate and ornate costuming from different eras and cultures. Nunn shifted some scenes around and brought in prose text from George Wilkins' Pericles story (thought to be the co-author of this play with Shakespeare) in order to improve the pace and clarity of the story. The production included folk songs and dances interwoven throughout the play as was often done in the original Shakespeare productions.

• The 2016 Guthrie Theater production directed by Joseph Haj was a collaboration with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Unlike most scholars, Haj believes that the play was written entirely by Shakespeare, calling it "deep" and "mature". Rather than an elaborate set, the play uses visual projections on a large screen; this is particularly effective for the shipwreck scene and the "literal wall of water... coming right at you.".^[27] Musicians effectively set the mood, create tension, and underscore the theme.^[28]

• The BBC has broadcast two radio adaptations of the play: one in 2005 starring Tom Mannion as Pericles and one in 2017 with Willard White as Gower, Paapa Essiedu as Pericles and Adjoa Andoh as Dionyza/Lychorida.

• In August 2019, Dan Dawes directed a stripped back, multi-roling production of the play for the company Idle Discourse, which focused heavily on bold storytelling and physical comedy. The production initially ran at London's
  Upstairs at the Gatehouse in Highgate before transferring to the Baroque Palace Theatre in the Palace of Valtice
  , Czech Republic, the following month. Tom Grace starred as Pericles, Adam Elms as Gower, and Lauren Cornelius as Marina.

• The Royal Shakespeare Company have scheduled Pericles for a July-September 2024 performance, directed by Tamara Harvey with Alfred Enoch as Pericles.^[29]

Notes

References

Further reading

• Shakespeare, William. Pericles, Prince of Tyre (.HTML). United Kingdom: Classic Literature Library. Retrieved 9 October 2008.
• Shakespeare, William. Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Toronto: MaximumEdge. Retrieved 9 October 2008.
• Skeele, David. Thwarting the Wayward Seas: A critical and Theatrical History of Shakespeare's Pericles in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Newark: University of Delaware Press 1998.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Pericles (Shakespeare)

Wikiquote has quotations related to Pericles, Prince of Tyre.

• Pericles at Standard Ebooks
• Pericles – Ebook at Project Gutenberg
• Pericles and Pericles, Prince of Tyre at the
  Internet off-Broadway Database
• Pericles, Prince of Tyre public domain audiobook at LibriVox