Who’d be Pericles, eh?
First you’re forced to leave everything and everyone behind and run for your life after facing an impossible choice. Then you’re shipwrecked. But that’s tickety-boo because it helps you find the love of your life. But wait, there’s another shipwreck and you think she’s died during childbirth. You’ve still got your daughter, but fate finds you leaving her behind too. This is a man for whom the purchase of a lottery ticket would most definitely be a waste of two pounds. Luck is not his friend.
Who’d be him, then?
Shakespeare’s Globe stalwart James Garnon, that’s who. The actor, who has performed at the Bankside venue for 10 consecutive years, takes the title role in this new production coming to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse this winter.
Ahead of the show’s first performance, which comes on 19 November, Marc Brenner crept into rehearsals to snap the goings on, bravely running the risk of Pericles’ luck rubbing off on him.
NB Pericles is NOT a tragedy. I hope it’s not too much to say – this play has been around for a few years now – that with a little fairy tale style magic everything works out in the end. I know you were worried.