Cheek by Jowl have built a prestigious international reputation for their innovative and daring reimagining of classic texts including several in Russian. This production of Pericles is their first in French, with a French cast and co produced with several French institutions. It plays in the U.K. during April at the Silk Street Theatre in the Barbican London and the Oxford Playhouse before travelling back to France and Spain.
Director Declan Donnellan and Designer Nick Omerod, the founders and artistic directors of Check by Jowl certainly know how to challenge their audiences and this production running to just over 100 minutes without an interval requires intense concentration with a good grasp of both French and the play to really be enjoyed. Without either, it is extremely hard work to piece together what is going on as they have reset the whole play in a modern hospital.
It appears to take as it's guiding thought the line "This is the rarest dream that e'er dull'd sleep did mock sad fools withal" and presents Shakespeare's tragicomedy romance as the inner thoughts of a man emerging from a coma or general anaesthetic in a stark deep blue hospital ward. The programme describes the play as a "painful adventure", which such a coming out of a deep sleep must surely be but is also a confusing one.
