William Shakespeare’s Pericles is a saga of adventure, love, loss, travails, despair, and reunion. It is more Homeric epic than Romeo and Juliet. And Director Bill Watson allows his large ensemble cast of enthusiastic and skilled student actors to tell the story through Shakespeare’s actual poetry. The time and place hasn’t been altered to make the play
And yes, Shakespeare’s elegant but antique English can seem a bit thick to our modern ears, particularly in a play like Pericles that has a large cast of principals and a number of exotic locations, to our mind at least. So instead of using affected British accents, Watson brings us into the text with the comfortable and familiar mid-western accent.
This presentation is a delight. As I said, the cast is very into telling the story and bringing the characters to life. Pericles of course is the focus and the role is filled by two actors…Gabe Rodriguez in the first three acts and then Duleon Schneider in acts four and five. And they do justice to our hero…bringing him from the swaggering and bold adventurer of the early acts, through the harried but resilient wanderer of the middle action to the tragic vanquished soul of the final acts before the finale of resurrection and restoration.
And Marina’s determination and self-awareness is forcefully demonstrated by Natalie Gustafson. ‘Knowing’ that she’s lost her mother and being saved from an assassination by being kidnapped by pirates and sold into the sex trade, Gustafson provides a demonstration of all of the mettle needed to survive and way beyond our expectations of a 14 year old. And she is amazing in the final scenes when awaking the bereft Pericles…and she and Schneider very effectively draw out the first round of reunions agonizingly to this viewer, but just as Shakespeare intended.
And Watson’s careful and clearly planned movement of the stage furnishings is almost a ballet in itself and lets the audience digest what they have just seen and prepare for a new scene, place, and time. So kudos as well to the set team and lighting team!
Extra credit reading: The PDF program for Pericles is here.
Milwaukee has a robust and active theater culture and we are obviously seeing some of our future here at UWM. But the Peck School of the Arts Theater Dept is often overlooked and doesn’t get its due…so attend this weekend if you can, particularly if you are a Shakespeare fan. These student actors will assure you that Shakespeare is still alive in Milwaukee!
There are two performances left as of this writing, tonight and on Sunday November 10th. Tickets and additional information can be found here and tickets can be purchased at time of performance. The play is being performed on the Mainstage Theatre in the fine arts complex at UWM, 2400 E Kenwood Blvd, north of Mellencamp Hall, west of Mitchell Hall, on the northwest corner of Downer and Kenwood.
