Shakespeare didn't write all of this play, and perhaps that is why it is a bit rubbish. Perhaps he was full of sack when he picked up his quill, or maybe seeing he had just churned out
Macbeth,
Lear and
Antony and Cleopatra all that was left was dross. However this play came into being, all at the reading agreed that it was preposterous. The plot is absurd with a daughter incesting (no this is not a real verb) it up with her dad, a women being accidentally buried alive at sea, an innocent girl about to be murdered is captured by pirates and sold to a whore house where she retains her virginity by converting sinners to good men with the power of language. I mean come on Shakey, what were you playing at? Or do we blame poor George the other author. And as for Pericles, jeeeeessssus, what a miserable sod. He must of been Timon's younger brother - is Tyre near Athens? Saying all of this, the play makes for a hilarious reading. We had a riot and the reading came in under two hours (we neglected to include the drafted in passage of prose used by the Oxford to fatten the play up). I quite fancy seeing it performed now, especially if it was done by a company of clowns...
Our clowns were:
Gower, Chorus - Martin Power
Antiochus - Stephen Dyer
Pericles - David Blatcher
Helicanus - Gareth Bennet - Ryan
Cleon - Gareth Bennet - Ryan
Escanes - Ryan Nelson
Simonides - Ryan Nelson
Lysimachus - Stephen Dyer
Cerimon - Matthew Griffith
Thaliard - Adam Rakich
Philemon - Brian Eastly
Leonine - Brian Eastly
Marshal - Holly Spice
Pander - Adam Rakich
Boult - Matthew Griffith
Daughter of Antiochus - Claire Daniel
Dionyza - Yvonne McCulloch
Thaisa - Holly Spice
Marina - Maya Gabrielle
Lychorida - Rose
Bawd - Claire Daniel
Diana - Rose
