LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Pericles: Shakespeare Theatre
built 199 days ago
What makes Pericles so enjoyable is Zimmerman’s light hearted staging where miniature ships on long poles are displayed above waving blue satin material moving like the sea. Zany knights act the fool and celebrations use Old English folk dances in clever 17th Century style giving hints of original practices amongst Zimmerman’s artsy staging. This fable’s tale of redemption is smart, clever and totally enchanting. Zimmerman has made a lesser Shakespeare play into a treat.
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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.
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Pericles - play in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about 1606-08 and published in a quarto edition in 1609, a defective and at times nearly unintelligible text that shows signs of having been memorially reconstructed. The editors of the First Folio of 1623 did not include Pericles in that edition, which suggests that they did not think it to be all or substantially by Shakespeare.
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Pericles does differ from Shakespeare’s earlier works. He was experimenting with a new genre, and it sometimes reads more like episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys than his usual fare, perhaps because Pericles’ origins were similar to those of Hercules. Just as the modern day television writers gather and “enhance” ancient myths and legends for their scripts, Shakespeare annexed the popular legend of Apollonius of Tyre, whose earliest versions date as far back as the ninth century (Hoeniger xiii).
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Pericles was the first Shakespearean play to be staged after the reopening of the theatres following the English Civil War. Thomas Betterton, a 25-year-old newcomer, was "highly applauded in the title-role" both in 1660 and 1661.
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For the first time in its 17-year history, The Shakespeare Theatre presents Shakespeare’s romantic and spectacular adventure Pericles, complete with tyrant king, wicked stepmother, young heroine, shipwrecks and pirates. A wandering noble in a tumultuous land, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, travels the world by sea, finding love, tribulation and adventure. Featuring Shakespeare Theatre veteran Ryan Artzberger in the title role, Shakespeare’s epic tale of redemption celebrates the power of virtue. Pericles’ fantastical journey through exotic lands ends with a joyous family reunion, considered unsurpassed in the beauty of its language. Director Mary Zimmerman, who won a Tony Award for her stunning production of Metamorphoses, makes her Shakespeare Theatre debut. The Chicago Sun Times writes that her work is “altogether spell-binding, visually captivating and surprise-filled.â€
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