PERICLES is a play of two halves but without an interval in Sophie Paterson's directorial debut for York Shakespeare Project.

This is not a case of "let's get it over with as quickly as possible and then we can all go to the pub", because we're all in a seaside pub, The Gower, in her play-within-a-play staging of this very minor Shakespeare piece.

In fact, Paterson invites you to arrive early, from half an hour before the start, so you can enjoy a drink at the auditorium's impromptu bar with her cast, already in character playing a boisterous company about to tell the tale of Pericles, Prince Of Tyre.

This is not her way of trying to distract you from Pericles's place in the relegation spots of the Shakespeare league table, but instead a canny mode of pumping new air into what otherwise might by Pericles, Prince Of Flat Tyre.

Sophie, originally from Seattle, is on the directing, performing and writing MA course in the University of York's department of theatre, film and television and has a love of Pericles stretching back to teenage days.

A friend had advised her to stop her fixation with King Lear after her parents split up, suggesting Pericles' tale of reunion would be a mood upgrade, and she has since played Marina and is now directing a production that you can't avoid knowing falls in the week of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.

Forming York Shakespeare Project's 29th show, Pericles is a "play of two halves" because Bill wrote only half of it, the better half of course, after inn-keeper, part-time crook (allegedly) and very part-time playwright George Wilkins asked for his help, as you do.

It duly became the first of Shakespeare's late-career romances, and by taking the play at a fair old lick, with the company on stage at all times egging each other on, YSP make it a better show than it has any right to be.

Paterson has cast well: Nick Jones as the wrong'un of the piece, Simonides; Andrew Isherwood as the storm-tossed Pericles, with the world's weight on his shoulders; Claire Morley, holding everything together, both as Thaisa and one of the Fishermen; the splendidly roaring Rory Oliver as Boult; and Jimmy Johnson, regularly seeking out portals to comedy, in myriad roles.

George Stagnell's limping Helicanus is a noble support player, sometimes leading the lusty singing of sea shanties too, and amid the company's badinage and revelry, Emily Thane's Marina, Pericles's long-lost daughter, stands apart, serious and resolute, a young woman of no nonsense and good deeds. She is almost too good for this play!

Pericles, Prince Of Tyre, York Shakespeare Project, Upstage Centre, 41 Monkgate, York, until Saturday; 7.30pm plus 2pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk