Randolph Thompson as Pericles (L) faces off against an opponent (Rio Rasch) for a fair maiden’s honor onstage at Boston Court Pasadena (Photo – Brian Hashimoto)
Chances are you’re among the many people who have not heard of Shakespeare’s play Pericles. True to its artistic vision, Boston Court Pasadena brings light, clarity, and zest to its stage in a new version of the ancient tale of loss, resilience, and hope renewed.
By Melanie Hooks
Wait. “A new version” of Shakespeare?
Yes. It’s been translated, from the early modern English of Shakespeare’s day into contemporary modern English, a serious move by serious theater people: Ashland’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival, in a program known as “Play On Shakespeare.”
“Do no harm” was the program’s guiding principle, according to Executive Director Lue Morgan Douthit. While the goal was to bring clarity to a modern audience, the equally important intention was to preserve the beauty of its poetry. All 39 translations, including this one commissioned in 2015 from playwright Ellen McLaughlin, retain iambic pentameter, rhyme, and storylines.
Pericles in particular is very rarely staged or read, due to its difficult, purposefully archaic language. The logline: Pericles, an ancient prince of Tyre, sails the world, finds and loses a bride or two, then a daughter, then finds some happiness at the end. Director Margaret Shigeko Starbuck indicated that even Globe audiences of 1605 would have stumbled over the old-fashioned, medieval narrator character of Gower and the 1,000-year-old source material about a wandering Phoenician prince. Updating it “so that you can understand it without the footnotes” was Douthit’s entire point.
So: a big swing. Does it work?
Buy your ticket now. It’s going to sell out. It moves, it sings, it brings emotion to mythos. An incredible cast of ten, not a weak link among them, does everything from creating a storm onstage with nets and Mylar to jousting with pool noodles to staging an attack by pirates with gym equipment.
A spectacularly fun night at the theater
You might not even need to mention to the Shakespeare-averse that it’s based on the Bard if it intimidates them. And to language purists like theater reviewers, going in blind might be best. Then challenge them afterward to identify the original versus the updated lines. While some might be obvious, especially the comedic sequences, which generated true howls of laughter, others are so close to the Bard’s style that it requires going back to the original play—available free online through the Folger Shakespeare Library, for those who need a quick fix—to know for certain. For example: “You see here what becomes of men if Fate / Pits them against Antiochus the Great.”
In fact, Starbuck says, a certain percentage of the original language was required to remain, and it does so with grace and fluidity, without the stuffiness or exclusion that too often can accompany a lesser-known effort like this, one of the “romances.”
Starbuck’s vision of the play, despite the main character losing his wife and daughter and facing mortal danger multiple times, is one of hope and resilience. Choosing to set it in an emergency evacuation shelter nods to our area’s recent tragedies, acknowledging traumas from fires to immigration raids, but the idea is to show strangers helping each other in their darkest hours. Imagination as power emerges as a strong theme of the play, especially in the composition and placement of the original songs, determined by Starbuck and Composer/Sound Designer John Ballinger.
(L-R) Desirée Mee Jung, Nicole Javier, Julanne Chidi Hill beseech the gods to be spared in the stormy seas of “Pericles. (Photo – Brian Hashimoto)
The original tale was always a play-within-a-play, and the Gower character now uses the ancient tale of Pericles to encourage those sheltering together to ignore what they cannot control outside and concentrate on becoming “players” themselves, characters who figure out a way through outsized adventures with ancient gods and kings. All but Prince Pericles play more than one part, some many more.
Those players shine
As both a modern, eye-rolling daughter and an ancient, beneficent one—Thaisa—Nicole Javier projects confident groundedness, not an easy aspect to bring to some of the thinner ancient wifely roles. Julanne Chidi Hill (Helicanus/Bawd) shimmers with energy, drawing the eye whether as a fishing boat captain or royal counselor in ancient Phoenicia. Joel Swetow brings a real lightness to Gower, encouraging others to play, while also managing some great dad jokes as a royal father. The youthful trio of Jamie Gallo, Rio Rasch, and Alexander Matos steal many moments early on in tiny snatches of dialogue, with each gaining greater presence as the story unravels. All show themselves capable of fine comedic timing, athleticism—hello, pool-noodle jousting—and believably darker, more murderous tendencies. Troy L. Johnson, as Marina, must somehow be both young and wise, unworldly and yet manipulative enough to dissuade a bevy of potential abusers from bothering her, armed with only her wit. Her regal presence gets the job done.
The absolutely delightful duo of Desirée Mee Jung (Dionza/Cerimon) and Adam J. Smith (Cleon/Pandus), whose characters take the longest to engage in the play, charm with their cynicism—too cool, detached, and rich to care. But Jung’s expression when encouraged to play murderous envy might have been the funniest moment of the night, until Smith joined her for a telling “behave” moment between the couple that topped it.
Randolph Thompson inhabits Pericles’ despair so fully as his ancient self that it spills over into his modern one, bringing pathos with his physical power. He centers the production around the heartbreak of not being able to keep his loved ones out of harm’s way, despite that strength and even his power of position. While the ancient story itself contains melodramatic, larger-than-life elements, as any myth does, Thompson seems to be concentrating on the intimate, modern separation his character is undergoing from a family never shown onstage—and that is far more moving.
The play dwells on both the despair and the intense awakeness that accompanies life-changing events. Movement Director Estela Garcia choreographs the action on the small theater’s stage like a Tetris pro, using every ladder, every catwalk, every door—seen and hidden—and, most of all, the actors to keep the audience’s eyes and curiosity moving. Attention is constantly engaged by the action, a far cry from the stand-and-deliver-monologue versions of the Bard that keep some modern audiences away.
While some purists will never accept any change to a Shakespearean play, this *Pericles* earns the standing ovation it received on opening night—and likely will every night it’s onstage.
West Coast Premiere: Pericles Modern verse translation by Ellen McLaughlin Through Sept. 27, 2026 Thursday - Saturday: 7:30 pm Saturday & Sunday: 2:00 pm Location Boston Court Pasadena 70 N. Mentor Ave. Pasadena 91106 Tickets: $25-82
Saw the show, it was superb. The play was interesting and understandable. Highly recommend.