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1 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Ashland Calendar, July 7, 2015 ... Council Corner: It’s the solstice; thoughts on freedom ... Smithsonian exhibit includes video about Rogue innovators ... Ashland Calendar, July 7, 2015 ... Council Corner: It’s the solstice; thoughts on freedom ... Smithsonian exhibit includes video about Rogue innovators ... REVIEW Review: OSF director, actors restore 'Pericles' to life Comment By Roberta Kent for the Tidings DailyTidings.com By Roberta Kent for the Tidings Posted Mar. 2, 2015 at 5:09 PM By Roberta Kent for the Tidings Posted Mar. 2, 2015 at 5:09 PM » Social News When Shakespeare gives you a lemon, make lemonade. There is a reason that Shakespeare’s “Pericles” is not produced very often. Although the play was written relatively late in Shakespeare’s career, it reads as though the Bard showed up only for the occasional story meeting and then worked on the rewrites. “Pericles” lacks the crackling dialogue and multi-dimensional characters of the rest of Shakespeare’s work. The play does not even appear in the authoritative First Folio containing Shakespeare’s works, published in 1623. In fact, it does not show up until the second edition of the Third Folio, published in 1664, and then along with six other plays that proved to be spurious. The consensus among scholars is that “Pericles” was written by Shakespeare with a collaborator, probably a colleague named George Wilkins. That is why the production of “Pericles” that opened in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Bowmer Theatre is little short of a miracle. Director Joseph Haj has made “Pericles” into a luminous and mesmerizing fairy tale, filled with lush original music and astonishing stagecraft. Whether Shakespeare wrote all or part of it becomes irrelevant here. This OSF production stands on its own. “Pericles” is a story about a king who cannot catch a break. The plot involves multiple perils, harrowing losses and improbable coincidences. It is a Shakespearean cliffhanger not unlike a classic melodrama or television soap opera. Pericles (Wayne T. Carr) courts a princess, flees for his life, is shipwrecked in the process, washes ashore and woos another princess. His wife dies in childbirth, is buried at sea, found, resurrected and, believing herself a widow, becomes a priestess in a Temple of Diana. Pericles’ daughter, left in the care of supposed friends, is marked for death by a jealous stepmother, captured by pirates, sold to a brothel and, with her virginity still intact, transforms into a noted healer. Pericles, thinking both his wife and daughter are dead and overcome with grief, becomes unresponsive and mute. This harrowing tale then has a happy ending. Pericles is healed by his rediscovered daughter and reunited with his wife. In the process, he transitions from impetuous youth to sadder and much wiser elder statesman. Haj has taken the play’s episodic structure and built his fantasy upon it with some truly astonishing special effects. Here, Shakespeare’s narrator, Gower (Armando Duran), becomes a troubadour, singing as well as declaiming the verses provided in the text for continuity. Composer Jack Herrick took existing dialogue, created new lyrics and added original, ethereal music to further the tale. Scenic designer Jan Chambers, with video and projections by Francesca Talenti and lighting design by Rui Rita, creates an incredible seascape, filling the theater with a visceral appreciation of a sea voyage’s real peril. The multiple heroes, heroines, villains, servants and sycophants encountered by Pericles in his travels are played by Brooke Parks, Scott Ripley, U. Jonathan Toppo, Michael Gabriel Goodfriend, Barzin Akhavan, Michael J. Hume, Emily Serdahl and Jennie Greenberry. Given the play’s text, they might come off as the two-dimensional stock characters of fable, but Haj’s direction — and the actors’ skill — invests each of them with personality and even complexity. Lest this all sounds very solemn and overly reverent, Haj also provides ample broad comic relief. “Pericles” would be worth seeing if only to catch Michael J. Hume in drag as the brothel owner, Bawd, and watch U. Jonathan Toppo, as her servant Boult, trying to cop a feel under her dress. There are also pirates, a bored and petulant evil queen and a giddy, smitten teenage princess. “Pericles” is an emotional roller coaster, breathlessly packed into two hours and 20 minutes. The play was immensely popular for decades until, as Haj’s director’s notes describe, it “fell into disregard as the piece baffled (and continues to baffle) scholars and critics by its refusal to fit into traditional orthodoxies of what constitutes a well-made play.” Perhaps following Haj’s approach — taking “Pericles” on its own terms and building inventively upon its themes — the theater world will experience a revival of the play as wondrous as the “restoratives” presented by the play itself. Roberta Kent is a freelance writer living in Ashland. Reach her at [email protected].   By Roberta Kent for the Tidings DailyTidings.com By Roberta Kent for the Tidings Posted Mar. 2, 2015 at 5:09 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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