Saw it at the Globe this summer
It was the only chance during my trip to go to the Globe. I would rather have seen The Tempest. I knew Pericles would be a modern production, but I had seen other plays in modern styles that I didn't disagree with. It was definately worth buying a ticket to see a play produced on the Globe stage, but the play itself was AWFUL!
I tried to read it before going, but was pressed for time and only got halfway through. But I was able to understand the need for additions because the script we have today is incomplete. However, during this production I felt like I had gone to the circus. There were so many rope tricks and acrobatics in unnecessary places, that it severely overshadowed the story. At one point Gower tried to explain that Shakespeare would've enjoyed such a production. I doubt it! Shakespeare liked spectacle but I always felt that the purpose of it was to move the plot along, which this wasn't. Shakespeare always seems to be more concerned with the psychology of his characters.
In addition to this, there were just stupid mistakes by the director. They added an older Pericles looking on his younger self during the scenes, an aspect that I didn't disaggree with. However, the younger one spoke with a Mediterranean accent while the older one's was very British! That killed any verisimilitude. Also, when the play got past the part where I stopped reading, it was at the part where Marina is captive of a brothel. Everyone spoke Shakespearean English with thick Italian accents! I think the whole audience was lost at that point and only stuck around because of the amount of skin on stage that the "modernized" scene evidently required. I only understood anything that was being said because of Marina's lines.
I had to leave early to catch a train back to Cambridge, but I was glad for the excuse!
