Once again, the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School has demonstrated great resourcefulness when responding to the challenges presented by the current pandemic.  Directed by Aaron Parsons and recorded live in the Redgrave Theatre, this ‘Covid-secure’ Pericles features thirteen performers, all graduates of the MA Professional Acting course. It is a tribute to their versatility that little or no confusion arises from the fact that they tackle nearly fifty roles, with some actors playing six different characters.  This production is billed as a version of Pericles created by Andrew Hilton and Dominic Power, but they have remained very faithful to the original. 

Of the thirty-seven plays in Shakespeare’s canon, Pericles is one of the strangest. Best categorised, perhaps, as a ‘romance’, it has some of the ingredients we find in The Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline and The Tempest, and some that are all its own.  That may be because much of it is very probably not by Shakespeare at all.  There seems to be general agreement that a rather shady character called George Wilkins was largely responsible for the first two acts.  Innkeeper, pamphleteer and ‘panderer’, Wilkins seems to have left the remainder of the play in the more capable hands of the Bard. Their collaboration created an episodic tale full of murderous treachery, perilous adventures, remarkable escapes and even more remarkable coincidences. It can be challenging to present this play as a cohesive, convincing whole.

This production rises to the challenge by delivering the text straight, and by taking the more far-fetched elements seriously.  The tone is set in the opening scene, where dignified narrators introduce the story in solemn, ceremonial fashion.  What follows is essentially the story of a Prince from classical antiquity who, when fleeing from a murderous tyrant, suffers a long sequence of dreadful calamities.  There are storms at sea, encounters with pirates, and would-be assassins at every turn, and Pericles loses both his wife and baby daughter.  However, after many trials and tribulations they are all joyously reunited.  Lewis McDonald is well cast as Pericles, conveying clearly his fundamental goodness, impulsiveness, and taste for danger.  Later in the play we see a sadder, more world-weary Pericles, driven to near collapse by his trials.  Here he is played by Kamil Borowski, who brings an apt degree of gravitas to the role.  The final scene of reunification with his wife and daughter is very moving.

Alexandra Nedved is Marina, Pericles’s daughter.  Captured by pirates she is sold to brothel-keepers, but her purity and virtue give her the power to persuade would-be ravishers to mend their ways. Nedved brings real substance to a role that could all too easily seem rather bland.  One of those brothel-keepers is the appropriately named Bawd, played with gleeful energy by Lynn Flavin.  She is also splendidly dangerous as the hired killer Leonine, delivering her lines with gusto. Another actor who brings real zip and vitality to this production is Jason Keller, playing both Boult, a servant in the brothel and, more regally, Cleon, Governor of Tarsus, who raises the infant Miranda alongside his own daughter. Cleon’s wife, Dionyza, turns from maternal to murderous when she realises that Miranda is more beautiful than her own child. Siobhan Galpin conveys her transition from kindliness to jealousy and envy with considerable skill. I also particularly enjoyed the contrast between James Austin’s portrayal of Pericles’s wise and loyal advisor Helicanus, and his comic turn as a simple, yet equally sagacious fisherman.

Performed against a plain black background, and with few props, this is a production that relies almost entirely upon its young actors’ ability to convey character and events just through speech and gesture.  They succeed admirably. I hope they all find themselves performing before real live audiences before too long.    ★★★★☆    Mike Whitton  23^rd September 2020