APT's 'Pericles is an epic adventure of hilarious proportions

By Gwendolyn Rice, GwendolynRice.com

Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre could be a director’s nightmare. More like an action-adventure movie than a play at times, it features dozens of characters, several perilous sea voyages, too many kingdoms to count, two competitions for a princess’s hand in marriage, raging storms, assassins, incest, love, loss, one goddess, and a brothel. Oh, and pirates.

But director Erick Tucker took the myriad challenges in one of the Bard’s lesser-performed works and turned them into a spectacular, jaw dropping, hilarious opportunity. With a nimble company of only ten actors, he injects a hearty dose of vaudeville into the dizzying, sometimes uneven story of the extremely unlucky Prince of Tyre. The result is like the Reduced Shakespeare Company meets ComedySportz, meets the Muppet Show, and it’s onstage Up the Hill at American Players Theatre, through September 29th.

Full story