PERICLES

"Give me a gash, put me to present pain,
Lest this great sea of joys rushing upon me
O'erbear the shores of my mortality
And drown me in their sweetness!"

I promenaded for the first half; it is a unique and extraordinary experience, although I failed to get a seat at the banquet, in spite of placing myself as close to the action as possible - next time I'll sit down before I'm asked. And I had a moment of pure and Pooterish fantasy. The contest for Thaisa's hand is a modern pentathlon - I could have moved in and, as a former Captain of the Oxford University Modern Pentathlon Team, defeated Pericles for the prize. The moment passed.

It's a good production, with some outstanding performances - Joseph Mydell as Gower was particularly compelling.

Peter Kirwan, a fellow blogger [see link], wrote online in The Bardathon,

"We started the play being pushed into lines and held at gunpoint by the rebel soldiers of Antiochus. Audience members were invited to join Simonides’ banquet. Gower stood among us throughout and ushered us, hushed, to sit before a platform and witness the reunion of Pericles and Marina. Throughout, the audience were continually energised and unsettled, and as a result completely gripped by the events. It’s a very clever trick, as a production doubles its pace by keeping its audience moving as fast as the actors."

Personal Star Rating [out of five]****