Périclès, Prince de Tyr at Silk Street Theatre, Barbican
Patrick Baldwin. Cécile Leterme, Christophe Grégoire, Camille Cayol I love the fact that theatre is so much more than just a proscenium arch and a stage. Immersive, site-specific, promenade, there are so many ways in which a play can be put on to entertain an audience. For example, at the Barbican, Cheek By Jowl productions have brought their version of Périclès, Prince de Tyr by William Shakespeare and George Wilkins. In a very blue hospital ward, a man (Christophe Grégoire) is lying in bed. Although a radio is playing, the man appears to be in a coma. He is being looked after by a Doctor (Cécile Leterme) and two nurses (Guillaume Pottier and Martin Nikonoff). As he lies there, the man’s family (Camille Cayol, Valentine Catzéflis and Xavier Boiffier) come in and sit with him. All though is not as it would seem, and in a series of switches between the reality of the hospital room, and the journey of Périclès he travels a world of pirates, magic and double-crossing to f...