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Shakespeare's Indiana Jones adventure! Our production is told in the style of the 1001 Arabian Nights
Tales, and it also strongly resembles Homer's Odyssey in terms of one man's journey and trials.
The story of Pericles is one of the great epic romances of Shakespeare drawing from Greek tales of
adventure. Pericles sets forth upon a journey by both land and sea, and adventures between the worlds of heaven and earth.
Pericles finds joy, loses it to the sea, and encounters tyrants, deadly riddles, warriors, and ultimately regains what he
has lost in an entertaining series of adventures.
Synopsis: |
Pericles has gone to Antioch as suitor to the daughter of King
Antiochus. The test set by Antiochus is to guess the meaning of a riddle, with death as the penalty for failure - the fate
of all previous suitors. Pericles  solves the riddle but it reveals a terrible secret about the King and, realising his danger, Pericles flees for his life home
to Tyre. Antiochus, however, dispatches his man Thaliard after him to kill him and Pericles knows he will not be safe even
at home.
Leaving the trusted Helicanus to govern in his absence, he sets sail for Tharsus with a ship full of
grain to relieve the famine that grips that city, earning the gratitude of Cleon, the Governor, and his wife Dionyza. Hearing
from Helicanus that he is still in danger from Thaliard, Pericles puts to sea again but is shipwrecked and washed up on the
shores of Pentapolis, where he is rescued by fishermen. They conduct him to the court of King Simonides, who is celebrating
the birthday of his daughter Thaisa with a grand tournament. Pericles, concealing his identity, defeats the many knights jousting
for the princess's hand and, despite her father's initial suspicion of this mysterious stranger-knight, he and Thaisa are
married. |
| Some months later news reaches Tharsus that King Antiochus is dead. His life is no longer
in danger - and his identity is finally revealed - Pericles sets sail for Tyre with Thaisa, now pregnant with their first
child. During a terrible storm, Thaisa dies giving birth to a daughter and is buried at sea. Pericles makes for the coast
of Tharsus and entrusts his baby daughter, christened Marina, to the care of Cleon and Dionyza, charging them to bring her
up as becomes a princess.
Meanwhile, Thaisa's coffin has come to land at Ephesus and is carried to the monk Cerimon who, through
his skills, is able to revive Thaisa. Believing herself to be the only survivor of the storm, Thaisa enters the temple of
Diana as a nun.
Some twenty years pass. Marina, growing up in Cleon's household has attracted the envy of Dionyza,
who fears she outshines her own daughter. She instructs Leonine to kill Marina but before he can carry out his charge they
are attacked by pirates who abduct Marina and sell her into a brothel in Mytilene. Cleon and Dionyza maintain that Marina
has died and when Pericles comes to claim his daughter, they show him her monument. Pericles, in anguish, puts to sea again
with the faithful Helicanus, and goes completely mad.
Meanwhile in the brothel, Marina's chaste defence of her virtue confounds the inmates and is bad for
business. Lysimachus, the Governor of Mytilene, visiting the brothel in disguise, is greatly impressed by her. With the help
of Boult the servant, she manages to find a situation in an honest house, where she is much admired for her musical talents
and her innate goodness.
Meanwhile, Pericles and his followers have returned to Mytilene. Pericles, who remains nearly catatonic,
and is revived by Marina, who comes to cure an old sick king, and finds he is her father. Both father and daughter set sail
for Ephesus, where Pericles goes to give thanks to Diana for her favor in finding his long-lost child. There, they are also
reunited with Thaisa, and the tale ends happily. |
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