Chicago Tribune
- Highly Recommended
"...Watching "Pericles" Friday night in a rapt crowd of fellow Chicagoans, all clearly delighted that the RSC has come back in town for the first time in some 30 years, I was struck by how even though "Pericles" shows us power being wielded in a wide variety of ways as Pericles wanders around Greek kingdoms ruled in different ways, it really has two main themes."
Chicago Sun Times
- Recommended
"...On an off-day or two or more, Shakespeare wrote "Pericles." Or did he even? Scholars now generally credit the obscure writer and innkeeper George Wilkins for the first two of the five acts. No wonder then, that, when produced, the most memorable moments reliably arise in its last scenes, a duo of emotional family reunifications that brought Shakespeare as close as he ever came to writing a Nicholas Sparks-like tearjerker."
Chicago Reader
- Highly Recommended
"...Yet the irony of Pericles, as Harold Bloom noted in Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, is that it’s so confounding on the page that it’s the rare Shakespearean play that you probably shouldn’t read for its own sake. It’s better to see it live, no matter how strange and unwieldy the story can be."
Chicago Stage and Screen
- Highly Recommended
"...If you want to see incredible ensemble work, and movement that illuminates the text of the Bard, you could hop a flight across the pond, schlep up to the Midlands and immerse yourself in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s season, you could try to screen some of their classic productions off a platform, or from now until December 7th, you can head to Navy Pier for a delicious production of Pericles, live and in person. You don't want to pass this up!"
Around The Town Chicago
- Highly Recommended
"...Directed by Tamara Harvey, who is herself a newly appointed Co-Artistic Director of the RSC, this “Pericles” hones in on the immense burdens that are placed on anyone who may aspire to be a successful leader while also finding great humor and emotional honesty in the text of this lesser-known and rarely seen later work of William Shakespeare."
Chicago Theatre Review
- Highly Recommended
"...This globe-trotting adventure story, presented with a capital A, is gorgeously told. It opens with a riddle and ends with a satisfying Happily Ever After. It’s a mythic tale that features an intrepid hero at its helm with a myriad of supporting characters to challenge the Prince’s mettle. Younger audiences will enjoy all the action and conflict, while veteran audiences will revel in the play’s language, romance and strong characterizations. This is a magnificent production of one of Shakespeare’s lesser-produced plays. It’s crafted with finesse by a smart and gifted director and presented by a multitalented company of actors and theatre artists. The episodic series of events, all linked together through the character of Pericles, gives audiences a truly winning hero in a shining saga that has something for everyone."
Buzz Center Stage
- Highly Recommended
"...The reward of this seldom-produced play is not a specific character’s path to greater humanity, but instead a timeless commentary on leadership. As we wade through this election season, enduring politicians who blow flattery into voters at home and hearing reports of sins from abroad, Pericles’ exotic narrative seems frighteningly familiar."
The Fourth Walsh
- Recommended
"...After a thirty year absence, RSC returns to Chicago with its production of a lesser known Shakespearean play. Pericles is a young ruler exploring other lands. In Act One, a shipwreck brings him to the shores of Pentapolis where he falls in love and marries a princess, Thaisa. When giving birth to their daughter on a ship, Thaisa dies and is buried at sea. A distraught Pericles gives their baby daughter, Marina, to someone else to raise. Act Two is fourteen years later and features a still grieving Pericles, a plucky Marina and a mysterious priestess at the Temple of the Goddess Diana."
Third Coast Review
- Highly Recommended
"...Fans of Shakespeare’s work are no stranger to impressive feats of stage combat. I have often seen productions full of swordplay, quarterstaffs, and so much more. Shakespeare’s work rarely hides from war and battle, and these are often moments that leave the audience in awe. Director Tamara Harvey’s production of Pericles by the Royal Shakespeare Company is no exception; however, the team takes a slightly different approach. The Royal Shakespeare Company of Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, last performed at Chicago Shakespeare Theater 30 years ago."
Chicago Theater and Arts
- Somewhat Recommended
"...Maybe, I was in the mood for a solid Shakespearean play. In "Pericles," supposedly but questionably penned by William Shakespeare, members of the renown Royal Shakespeare Company flit around the stage as if in a remake of an 18th century enchanted forest dream, complete with music and dance. The production doesn't get better until the last act, and that becomes a tearjerker."
Chicago On Stage
- Highly Recommended
"...If you are unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s Pericles, that shouldn’t be surprising. A post in Reddit’s r/shakespeare (sourced to yougov.com) on the “relative popularity” of all of the Bard’s plays places it dead last, with only 1% of those surveyed being familiar with it at all (and this survey was in Britain!). It is very infrequently read, very infrequently performed, and very infrequently seen. So don’t berate your ignorance: you are clearly not alone."
PicksInSix
- Highly Recommended
"...If the Royal Shakespeare Company's exhilarating production of Shakespeare's "Pericles" is, as it was for me, your first introduction to the material live on stage, you are in for an experience that only comes along, in this case, every thirty years or so. There is agreement on an ongoing relationship with RSC and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater which could not be better news for one of Chicago's most prestigious purveyors of international productions and for the fascination and enjoyment of young and old alike."
MaraTapp.org
- Recommended
"...William Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre is rarely considered one of his best plays but Royal Shakespeare Company’s production, now in Chicago, uses music, song and dance to elevate this play and bring out its magic."
Chicago Culture Authority
- Highly Recommended
"...In an exclusive U.S. engagement, the Royal Shakespeare Company has returned to Chicago Shakespeare Theater for the first time in three decades with a profoundly satisfying production of Pericles in which the top-flight troupe and director Tamara Harvey bring Shakespeare's cracking adventure to vibrant life."
Splash Magazine
- Highly Recommended
"...Under the Court Theater’s vastly high ceiling, thick ropes are draped and depend downward, framing the action as a series of destinations for seafarers. The scene where the imaginary boat rocks upon storm-tossed waves is riveting. These fascinating actors do so much with beautifully expressive language, remarkably timely layered- natural fabric costumes, and nuanced gestures; and the tableaux were a welcome respite from typical space-taking furniture. The stage was full of actors working their craft, spinning, turning, interacting- always graceful, their movements often imbued with undertones of shaded meanings.”"
NewCity Chicago
- Recommended
"...Imaginative moments like these make RSC's "Pericles" a brilliant production. Although the play itself is not for everyone, particularly those not deeply entrenched in Jacobean/Greek theater, it's worth seeing at least once. And if there was ever a "Pericles" to see, it is this one."
