Pericles in Regent’s Park

Pericles is one of the few Shakespeare plays that’s largely left alone: it’s rarely staged, little taught in schools, and has never received a Kenneth Brannagh cinematic makeover.

On being greeted by a jolly gang of pirates on arrival into the auditorium, it’s clear that this is no ordinary production: the Open Air Theatre has made the bold decision to rework the text into a vibrant piece of theatre for children.

The young audience’s attention is wooed by spectacle from the start: an impressive set is dominated by a lighthouse and fully-rigged ship’s mast, which are used inventively throughout the show. Overwhelming sound design furthers the imagined seascape, as does the stormy summer weather that hangs over the outdoor stage.

Passages of the original text are interwoven between modernised dialogue, music and pantomime-like audience interaction, for which the children are asked to join in chorus songs and pass a message in a bottle along the aisles. The performance’s boisterous physicality draws out the text’s dramatics but also adds a great deal of comedy too. Director Natalie Abrahami ensures that there’s plenty of perfectly-timed clowning and visual gags (watch out for a witty take on rowing boats).

A small, cleverly cross-cast troupe of actors flit between over a dozen roles. Gary Milner, in the title role of the prince who loses his home and family, speaks the original verse with a compelling clarity. It’s a shame that we don’t hear more of this, especially as the children seem just as enamoured by the rhythmic language of the original text as they do by the jaunty asides and Disney-themed costumes.

Abridging the play’s complex plot and sanitising its darker themes is a difficult challenge. While the text’s depiction of Marina being forced into prostitution may be too an adult a theme for a young audience, that here she’s simply forced to dress up in a mermaid’s costume doesn’t quite provide the fear needed to prompt her escape. Children can perhaps handle more darkness than they’re presented with here, as the characters’ actions become exaggerated without a real sense of jeopardy – so their resolution becomes less satisfying. Pericles’ reunion with his family does not come with the wash of relief that it should because their tribulations have been over-simplified.

While this production is bursting with energy, humour and winning acting, its side-stepping of the violence at the heart of the text makes you question why the company chose such a unsettling play in the first place.

Pericles runs until 23 July at:

The Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
The Ironworks
Inner Circle
Regent’s Park
NW1 4NR

Image by Steve Tanner