The Pericles of ancient history presided over the golden age of Athens. He subsequently fell from grace, watched all his legitimate children die, legitimised an illegitimate son and was re-elected. Then he, too, was killed by the plague.
Shakespeare’s eponymous hero is happier - but only after an epic series of misfortunes and near miracles that make for an improbable play even by the extravagant standards of the late tragi-comedies.
Undeterred, the vibrant new troupe Blotto Theatre, armed with only three actors and a minimal budget, selects it for an adventurous and enterprising “maiden voyage”.
Philippa Palmer and Alex Topham Tyerman throw themselves into the vast array of characters from pirate and prostitute to drowned queen and lost princess.
A curly-haired and bearded Ben Hadley looks the part of Pericles and sounds it too as he raves in grief.
The economy of means and props, including plastic fish for swords, throw the emphasis on the ludicrous to good effect, but at the expense of the spiritual.
We look on at rather than share in Pericles’ sorrow and redemption as he is tossed from wave to wave, though Sorrell Moore’s evocative set makes us almost smell the salt of the vicissitudinous sea.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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