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magidThursday I made it to Pericles (Shakespeare, mostly) at MIT. I hadn't seen the show before, and was curious to see it. Unfortunately for me, though the production values were quite high, the acting was not.
The play shifts location all around the Mediterranean, and having the show be almost in the round was used to help keep geographical settings straight: there were six entrances to the middle stage area, each one used for a particular locale, each one with a different post or pillar or arch to distinguish it. Additionally, there was a 'shrine' area at the front, and a 'ship' area at the back (which meant people in the largest part of the audience had to turn around in their seats and look up, which is less than ideal). There was a lot of sea travel to and fro, often indicated by a cool lighting effect on the main stage, with blue-green wavy lights moving around.
The plot is fairly ridiculous, with an opening scene that could easily not have been part of the play at all, except that who wouldn't want a gratuitous incest reference? Also, you'd think that after the second or third shipwreck, Pericles would start thinking about propitiating Poseidon or something.
While there were a few actors who did a good job (the narrator, some of the supporting actors who had a number of roles), too many of the main actors needed more work. Pericles seemed to be rushing through his lines too frequently, and often lacked enough volume to hear the words distinctly. This was also a problem with a couple of the other actors. I don't know whether they were saying the words so quickly because it's a long play, but it would have been far better done had some lines been edited out, and time taken with the rest. There were times that the syllables washed over me, and I would not have been able to tell you what the words actually were.
I'm hoping there will be better casting choices for their next production.
The play shifts location all around the Mediterranean, and having the show be almost in the round was used to help keep geographical settings straight: there were six entrances to the middle stage area, each one used for a particular locale, each one with a different post or pillar or arch to distinguish it. Additionally, there was a 'shrine' area at the front, and a 'ship' area at the back (which meant people in the largest part of the audience had to turn around in their seats and look up, which is less than ideal). There was a lot of sea travel to and fro, often indicated by a cool lighting effect on the main stage, with blue-green wavy lights moving around.
The plot is fairly ridiculous, with an opening scene that could easily not have been part of the play at all, except that who wouldn't want a gratuitous incest reference? Also, you'd think that after the second or third shipwreck, Pericles would start thinking about propitiating Poseidon or something.
While there were a few actors who did a good job (the narrator, some of the supporting actors who had a number of roles), too many of the main actors needed more work. Pericles seemed to be rushing through his lines too frequently, and often lacked enough volume to hear the words distinctly. This was also a problem with a couple of the other actors. I don't know whether they were saying the words so quickly because it's a long play, but it would have been far better done had some lines been edited out, and time taken with the rest. There were times that the syllables washed over me, and I would not have been able to tell you what the words actually were.
I'm hoping there will be better casting choices for their next production.