The main reason for my day in London was to see one of the six Shakespeare plays that so far I have missed. Pericles was staged at the intimate indoor theatre in the Globe complex. The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse has mostly bench seating but I booked the third and last row of the lower tier that has a plain wooden surround that my jumper made slightly more comfortable. You also have to get used to the dim lighting of just candles.
The play itself does not feel like an authentic Shaksepeare. Being co-written by the dreadful George Wilkins, there are certainly themes that echo some of the improbable plots of the comedies, only more improbable. So some of the laughs are at the improbability rather than the actual humour. The story is quite easy to follow, having deliberately avoided knowing what happens. However the action takes place in different places and we jump back to one and then another.
Luckily the cast and direction by the clever artistic director Dominic Dromgoole make up for any shortcomings and throw themselves into the play. Whilst I thought that James Garnon in the title role was weak in the early scenes, he came into his own at the end. But for me, the stand out performance was from 78 year old Sheila Reid as our narrator Gower. This is a much bigger role than the normal chorus at the beginning and end. Gower is on and off explaining what is going on. Reid was fantastic.
The design and music were excellent. I knew from the song at the begining with the whole cast that we were in for a treat. It had been a long day but one that I will think about for a long time. Not forgetting dinner with Zoe at Pizza Express, yards from the theatre.
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