Pericles (Shakespeare's Globe)

Pericles may not be the most well-known of Shakespeare’s plays, but it is undoubtedly one of his most lovely. A beautifully crafted work, its highs are heady and its lows are heavy and ultimately it serves as a cockle-warming treat.

But, if you’re looking for wholesome, clean fun then you won’t find it in Pericles. Co-authored by George Wilkins, it is one of the Bard’s later plays and there’s incest, prostitution, death, attempted murder and general sorrows by the bucketful. Dominic Dromgoole‘s robust but simple production also ramps up the sauce – it is as sexy as hell.

James Garnon plays Pericles, the unhappy prince who has to flee from King Antiochus after solving a (very easy) riddle which reveals the king is committing incest. While running from Antiochus, Pericles is shipwrecked upon Pentapolis where he manages to woo and marry a princess before heading back home. During a tempest, he loses his new wife to childbirth and the raging seas and has to give up his daughter to a local king to look after. His sorrows envelope him and for 14 years he wallows, unbearably, refusing to wash or cut his hair.

In less steady hands than Dromgoole’s, the play’s numerous jumps in place would be impossible to keep up with. But it is a tribute to the exiting artistic director’s skills that we are with this cast all the way. And Dromgoole is a master of how to maximise the drama in the delicate candlelight indoor at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. In the opening scenes the chandeliers are blown out, so we sit in darkness, watching one single flame held by the bewitching narrator Gower – here played by a transfixing Sheila Reid.

Jonathan Fensom's designs have several lovely flourishes during the storm scenes as the cast clamber on sail rigging and walking out onto a ship's plank that hovers into the audience.

Garnon warms up into a sweet, commanding Pericles, giving his more melancholic speeches a convincing, weary weight. The scene where an unsuspecting Pericles is reunited with his daughter is almost unbearably poignant. As Jessica Baglow’s Marina perches on her long lost father’s sick bed, his hair unshaven, his voice cracked, he can barely hope, barely control his heart as it leaps in the knowledge that he may have found his Marina.

There’s much humour too, and the excellent ensemble cast revel in the comedy moments. Even Garnon, endearingly uncertain in his earlier scenes, gets to play around a bit towards the end. Much must be said for the two pimps played a little like Harry Enfield’s Wayne and Waynetta by Kirsty Woodward and Dennis Herdman. They are both hilarious and horrendous as they try their best to ‘crack the glass’ of Marina’s virginity. It's a promising beginning to the the end of Dromgoole's ten-year tenure: heart enriching, soul-stirring stuff.

Pericles runs at Shakespeare's Globe until 21 April.