PERICLES is one of Shakespeare’s lesser-spotted plays, but it can be found at York Theatre Royal from Thursday for three days.

“It’s not done often because it’s full of holes, and because it’s so episodic people get frustrated with that,” says Julian Ollive, the theatre’s education associate, who is directing next week’s YTR Youth Theatre production.

“You need a fair cast size, and it’s slightly unbelievable in terms of the characters being thinly drawn, so you just have to let your imagination go with the idea of it being a far-fetched story.”

Far-fetched, maybe, but lead actor Joe Feeney welcomes the chance to dive into the choppy waters of Shakespeare’s whirlwind journey through strange kingdoms and across perilous oceans, as Pericles faces ruthless tyrants and rival suitors, surviving battles and shipwrecks on the adventure of a lifetime.

“I find it ironic that theatre is about imagination and yet people now want it on a plate, but Pericles requires audiences to use their imagination to really feel its full force,” says Joe.

Julian concurs. “The audience should allow it to be a sweeping story where they’re not looking for modern-day references,” he says.

“It’s not heavy, it’s fun, but it does require imagination – and that’s not too much to ask of an audience,” insists Leola Cruden-Smith, who will play Pericles’s daughter, Marina.

“A lot of children’s theatre shows use imagination, whereas adults find it more difficult to go from reality to magic.”

Leola, the 17-year-old daughter of Theatre Royal artistic director Damian Cruden, and Joe, who will be 17 on Tuesday, are among a cast of 36 for a play chosen by the Theatre Royal’s former director of youth theatre, Owen Calvert Lyons.

Explaining Owen’s choice of play for the Youth Theatre’s companion piece to Theatre Royal’s upcoming production of Twelfth Night, Julian says: “I think it’s a pre-requisite of youth theatre, as we have a company of more than 30, that it needs to be a story that engages most of the company in the show most of the time. In this play, we have five or six places to populate – and it’s very episodic in structure – so we need a big cast.”

Pericles’s death-defying voyage will be given a timeless setting.

“It’s not ancient Greek, or Shakespearean, because it’s such an epic story that is both real and a fantasy, so it doesn’t seem right to set it in any one time,” says Julian.

“It’s more about how the characters express the tale in the right way, so that the language is not a barrier in telling the story through emotion and feeling and movement,” says Leola.

“And there’s so much excitement in the story,” says Joe.

This excitement is aligned to a universal theme.

“Pericles does have something to say today,” says Julian. “The themes in Shakespeare are so wide-reaching that they don’t relate specifically to young people, but there are questions for today about loss and re-union, and our company is sophisticated in its understanding of relationships where a father has lost his daughter or a mother has become an embarrassment.”


Pericles, York Theatre Royal Youth Theatre, York Theatre Royal, Thursday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk