Pericles - Shakespeare’s “Odyssey”

Media Release – for immediate release

Shakespeare’s “Odyssey”

Auckland Summer Shakespeare presents
PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE
Directed by Geoff Allen. Produced by Sarah Burren

Lesser known, yet one of his most successful works, Shakespeare’s fantastic tale of voyages, piracy, death-defying escapes, captivity and family lost and found, PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE, marks the 2014 season of the Auckland Summer Shakespeare, to be performed once again on the Old Arts Plaza from February 28th.

A fitting follow up to 2013’s season of King Lear, the tragic tale of a king and his daughters, Pericles follows a young prince shipwrecked, having run from death, as he fights for the love of his princess he will lose on the very sea that has marooned him. The woes, triumphs and miseries of his story are expressed in some of Shakespeare’s most moving and eloquent language.

Shakespeare’s play has been a puzzle over the years since his death. It is not clear why it was omitted from the 1623 Folio collection of his plays. Perhaps it was because the play was so very successful in print by itself, or perhaps because it was a collaboration – though with whom is still a matter of debate. Though included in later editions, it also suffered from the confused state of parts of the script. Nevertheless, the play has always been a popular one with audiences when staged, with its simple story built in vivid emotional scenes, at once beguilingly straightforward and powerfully direct.

The Auckland Summer Shakespeare production will embrace the simplicity of this tale of adventure and misadventure in the engaging and contemporary idiom of an energetic young company. Leading in song and story, a live band will play music, covering the likes of The Black Keys, Macklemore and The White Stripes. Pimps and madams, denizens of the brothel in which the play’s young heroine finds herself trapped, will frequent the arena, while intermission gives budding sportspeople a chance to play cricket with three cheeky fishermen. It will be a voyage on the sea of story-telling like few others!

Geoff Allen, well known locally from his work with Galatea productions, takes the director’s chair in 2014. His previous Shakespeare work includes directing Romeo and Juliet and, most recently, producing Hamlet at the Musgrove Theatre. He has also worked at the Auckland Fringe (Mrs. Van Gogh, 2013) and on George Bernard Shaw (Pygmalion, 2010).

Featuring the acting talents of Albert Walker, Suzy Sampson, Kathryn Owens, Caleb Wells and Gina Timberlake, Auckland Summer Shakespeare will bring to its 2014 audiences the excitement and dramatic colour of a play that has been called Shakespeare’s version of The Odyssey.

PERICLES plays:
28th February – 22nd March 2014
Old Arts Plaza, The University of Auckland
Adults $30, Group (10+) $25, Students $19
Tickets on sale now from The Maidment Theatre
www.maidment.auckland.ac.nz or 09 308 2383

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