APT's inventive 'Pericles' a playful, whirlwind tour

By Mike Fischer, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

August 21, 2017

During an odyssey involving six cities and consuming 15 years, Shakespeare’s Pericles often loses his way. During the just-opened production of “Pericles, Prince of Tyre” at American Players Theatre, the audience rarely does, even though just ten actors tackle more than three dozen roles. 

That’s a credit to director Eric Tucker, who has staged “Hamlet” with four actors and “Twelfth Night” with five in acclaimed productions in New York.  Working with ten APT actors in Spring Green must feel like a luxury. 

Doubling and trebling roles is the rule rather than the exception in productions of “Pericles,” a collaboration between Shakespeare and George Wilkins that’s also the first of the Bard’s romances – those late, great plays in which tragedy gives way to wish fulfillment and love conquers all.

Although it was once among Shakespeare’s most popular plays and has enjoyed a remarkable recent comeback –  this is my third “Pericles” review in three years – it remains underperformed.  That’s largely because of the significant staging challenges involved in whisking Pericles through his many adventures around the eastern Mediterranean, while keeping characters straight and themes in view.

True to a play that begins and is repeatedly interrupted by a narrator urging us to use our imaginations, Tucker’s solution involves traveling through time as well as space.

Full story