Stratford director adds new character to Shakespeare's Pericles

Making good theatre of Shakespeare'sThe Adventures ofPericlesis no easy task, says director ScottWentworth.

"The script ofPericlesis a notoriously corrupt script. It's in terrible shape,"Wentworthsays.

"The modernequivalentwould be if someonesnuckasmartphoneinto a movie and turned it on and then was hiding it from the movie manager, people were talking loud in front, you couldn't hear all the dialogue, you couldn't see everythingand then you had to sort of figure it out."

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Scholars generally agreePericleswas a collaboration of sorts with English dramatistGeorgeWilkins, withWilkinswriting the first third and Shakespeare the rest.

The manuscript wasn't included in the First Folio, a collection ofShakespear'splays that was published in 1623, and contains some pretty major inconsistencies, according toWentworth.

"This person says 'have a good trip' and the other person hasn't said he's going anywhere yet. Things are in the wrong order, things are obviously omitted so it's a bit of a mess.

"So every director and every group of actors that comes to it really has to massage this text in a way that you don' t have to with any other Shakespeare play."

To smooth out those rough spots,Wentworthreplaced the Chorus role, represented by poet JohnGower, with a new character:the Goddess Diana.

Herecruited his wife, Marion Adler, to play the part. She also collaborated withPaulShiltonon a songthat is called for in the scriptbut doesn't actuallyexist.

Hear how it plays out, in the audio below.

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