Pericles SF Gate Review

Courtesy of The SF Gate

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Kathleen Wilkinson

This play's the thing wherein you'll catch the essence of a king (well, she's actually just a prince). But London's Royal Academy-trained Susan-Jane Harrison, performing as Shakespeare's regal Lebanese suitor, richly rewards her audiences in this summer's offering from the all-female Shakespeare group Woman's Will. Harrison commands her role with all that we can hope for from any park player, plying the dangerous Mediterranean Sea with a wood-and-rope prow and a motley crew (some more up to the task than others) in search of a wife and, anon, a safe harbor for his daughter. Lizzie Calogero's performance as Bawd alone is worth the price of admission (a compliment even if the production is free). As adventurous as our hero, the company's artistic director Erin Merritt joins the Bay Area theatrical trend of using American Sign interpretation, going one step further and casting a non-speaker as the stuffy Middle English narrator. The post-"Cymbeline" work, a somewhat comic morality tale, plays well alfresco, while the occasional hapless dog struts his few minutes upon the "stage." Study the map ahead of time though -- the numerous characters played by the small cast (without markedly different costumes, save a quick change in the not-so-artfully-wrapped colored waistbands) and the different regions (with no printed signs for the geographically impaired) tend to befuddle even the shrewdist of willing co-imaginers. -- Kathleen Wilkinson