Pericles
Pericles Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, then Melbourne; Bell Shakespeare Company
The trouble with having a great big good idea is that it can blind the haver of the idea to its true worth; or at least, obscure the appropriateness of putting the idea into practice in a particular situation. So … the great big good idea, of director John Bell, was to incorporate Australia’s famous taiko drummers, Taikoz, into a collaborative production of a Shakespeare play.
As ideas go this is potentially a really interesting one: imagine a Samurai-style Hamlet, or a Midsummer Night’s Dream set amid cherry blossom with a mob of fumbling, third rate yakuza as the Mechanicals. The Scottish play could probably bear the weight of massive drums too.
But alas, poor Pericles, we knew him not well – because the dear thing is a dull soul who is rarely allowed out. And no wonder. It transpires that Pericles is a reminder of why “lost” or “forgotten” classics ended up that way – and should not be exhumed and definitely not dusted off and clad in dazzling finery that can only accentuate his shortcomings. And this is the basic – and sadly – insurmountable problem with this new Bell Shakespeare Company-Taikoz production. The play simply cannot carry the weight and pizzazz of the new element and the inevitable slewing of the production towards it.
The story goes like this: Pericles, a Prince of Tyre (Marcus Graham), is a fine upstanding man. Unfortunately, he puts his foot in it by blurting the news of incestuous goings-on between the King of Antioch and his daughter. Pericles takes ship to save his skin and fetches up in Tarsus where a famine is raging. He fixes that, continues on with his voyage and is shipwrecked off Pentapolis. There he claps eyes on Princess Thaisa (Lexi Freeman); they fall in love and marry. They sail away, presumably for nine months or thereabouts because in yet another storm, Thaisa dies in childbirth. Pericles’s superstitious mariners insist the corpse be jettisoned. The heartbroken prince leaves his infant daughter with another aristocratic pair Dionyza and Cleon (Darren Weller and Julie Goss) and continues on his long and lonely voyage of grieving. (Never was the Mediterranean so well traveled.)
Meanwhile, back at the plot, the fetchingly wrapped Thaisa washes up on a far off shore where it her good fortune to be found by John Gaden (aka an elderly gent named Gower). He brings her back to life as only he can and, incidentally, almost succeeds in bringing the play to life too. Ultimately, however, he actually highlights the old chestnut’s shortcomings by lending such weight and ability to its flimsiness.
Meanwhile again, the babe Marina grows up with her doting foster parents and foster sister in the foster palazzo until she becomes a gorgeous young thing (Andrea Demetriades) and therefore a mote in her jealous foster mother’s eye that must be plucked out.
Pericles is a romance, however, so a happy ending is nigh. Although mean Dionyza orders an assassin to murder Marina, he is played by Jonathan Gavin who is way too cute and decent to be convinced by such a half-baked flummery. Instead he – or perhaps the scriptwriter, who may or may not have been Shakespeare – manages to get pirates to kidnap Marina and sell her to a brothel in Mytilene.
As you would expect, Marina is so divinely virginal and nice she turns every would-be punter and rapist into a splendid citizen who renounces debauchery and refrains from deflowering her. This isn’t good for business and the brothel keepers Pandar and the Bawd (Weller and Julie Goss) are not happy.
Meanwhile, yet again, Pericles goes back to Tarsus to get Marina. Cruel Dionyza breaks the news of her death and Pericles does the thing he knows best: returns to his ship and sails away, becoming a ragged recluse beneath a blanket on the voyage. When they reach Mytilene word of this weird Howard Hughes character reaches Governor Lysimachus – one of those whose lust was snuffed by Marina’s goodness – and he dispatches her to the ship to revive the comatose traveler.
After a bit of to and fro father and daughter are reunited and Pericles suddenly finds a plum in his mouth and becomes Laurence Olivier. You will be further amazed to learn that at this point Pericles has a vision of Diana. She tells him it’s time to wrap this thing and get on over to the goddess’s temple at Ephesus where his wife, not dead and now a priestess, is to be found. Tra la. Much dancing, hugging and beating of drums. The end.
Designer Julie Lynch took her cue from Taikoz and clearly had a fabulous time. The set and costumes – oriental without being specific – are glorious eye candy; lighting designer Gavan Swift also contributes to the visual magic. So it really is a great pity that, along with the overwhelmingly loud and lovely presence of Taikoz (drums, gongs, cymbals and shakuhachi), they sink wan Pericles and the play becomes more and more beige as the evening goes on; despite the best and considerable efforts of all – or perhaps because of them.
