Spring Break
A powerful 'Pericles'
CRT performance finds the perfect balance humor and agony
Caitlin Mazzola
Issue date: 2/27/09 Section: Focus
Shakespeare is meant to be performed, not read. The Connecticut Repertory Theater's production of "Pericles, Prince of Tyre," which previewed Thursday in the Nafe Katter Theatre and opens tonight at 8 p.m., is no exception. The epic tale of incest, love and loss presented a successful start to its run, which will continue through March 8.
The production, directed by Dale A.J. Rose, is a vivid mix of competent acting and sensory experience. The cast, comprising mostly acting program students, is joined by Michael Sharon, who played Pericles, and Clark Carmichael, who played the narrator Gower, of the Actors' Equity Association.
The plot revolves around Pericles, who finds out that the princess he is eyeing is having an incestuous affair with her father, King Antioch. Pericles flees to Tyre to escape Antioch's death threats. He ends up shipwrecked, where he meets his love, Thaisa, and their lives become complicated with tragedy. The story later follows the life of Pericles' lost daughter, Marina.
Such a plot, with so much intermingling of subplots and separate story lines, relies on careful direction and emphasis on important characters and points to keep the audience following along. Rose's production involves the audience in the characters' stories and keeps the plot visually interesting for the performance's entire two-and-a-half hours.
The set and effects seem simple at the onset, but as the play progresses and the plot changes, intricacies develop that enhance the actors' presence on stage. When Pericles is sailing in a tempest, lightning flashes, thunder roars and the characters sway to and fro, illustrating the tossing of the ship at sea. When the goddess of chastity, Diana, visits Pericles in a dream, she is bathed in a flood of light, illuminating her to the point where it seems as though Diana herself is luminescent.
"The sensory experience made the play seem very real," said Juliana Flynn, a 5th-semester cognitive science major.
The production, directed by Dale A.J. Rose, is a vivid mix of competent acting and sensory experience. The cast, comprising mostly acting program students, is joined by Michael Sharon, who played Pericles, and Clark Carmichael, who played the narrator Gower, of the Actors' Equity Association.
The plot revolves around Pericles, who finds out that the princess he is eyeing is having an incestuous affair with her father, King Antioch. Pericles flees to Tyre to escape Antioch's death threats. He ends up shipwrecked, where he meets his love, Thaisa, and their lives become complicated with tragedy. The story later follows the life of Pericles' lost daughter, Marina.
Such a plot, with so much intermingling of subplots and separate story lines, relies on careful direction and emphasis on important characters and points to keep the audience following along. Rose's production involves the audience in the characters' stories and keeps the plot visually interesting for the performance's entire two-and-a-half hours.
The set and effects seem simple at the onset, but as the play progresses and the plot changes, intricacies develop that enhance the actors' presence on stage. When Pericles is sailing in a tempest, lightning flashes, thunder roars and the characters sway to and fro, illustrating the tossing of the ship at sea. When the goddess of chastity, Diana, visits Pericles in a dream, she is bathed in a flood of light, illuminating her to the point where it seems as though Diana herself is luminescent.
"The sensory experience made the play seem very real," said Juliana Flynn, a 5th-semester cognitive science major.
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