Pericles is an odd play.  Written late in Shakespeare’s career (with pamphleteer George Wilkins, who is probably responsible for the first two acts), its protagonist is a rather external hero, more prone to action than self-reflection.  After Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear, this is unusual.  But the play has a fairy tale-like quality, featuring incestuous kings and virgin prostitutes and miraculous revivals from death.  It can be a blast.

Unfortunately, the current production as Classic Stage Company, staged by Fiasco, is too vague and incoherent to capture any of its magic.  Pericles should evoke a series of otherworldly places, but the costumes are spare, the props few, and the background nonexistent.  None of these choices are distinct enough to suggest a rich world of detail surrounding the characters.  The scenes bleed into each other, and there is no sense of change or forward movement.  The sea is simulated by the rippling of a white sheet.

Furthermore, director Ben Steinfeld has cast four actors as Pericles (Noah Brody, Devin E. Haqq, Paco Tolson, and Tatiana Wechsler), an unnecessary and confusing decision without apparent dramatic purpose.  It drains the emotional weight of the drama.  One has no sooner assumed the lead than he is mourning the death of his wife (Jessie Austrian).  We haven’t had time to invest in this embodiment and therefore care little about his sorrows.  I have seen a Pericles where the doubling of the same actor in multiple roles has worked to great effect, but the swaps here only reminded me of children’s plays where the lead role is divided to ensure equity among the student actors.

I have enjoyed Fiasco productions in the past—specifically Cymbeline and Two Gentlemen of Verona—and they have some strong comic performers, including Andy Grotelueschen and Emily Young.  But their Pericles seems to have been staged without any clear idea of its meaning.  The result is hazy and ineffective.

Pericles runs through March 24th at the Classic Stage Company.  136 E. 13th Street  New York, NY.  2 hours.  One intermission.