Intrigue in the Middle East, This Time From Shakespeare

Last summer, the radio host Ira Glass prompted a Twitter tempest when he attended the Public Theater’s lackluster King Lear and tweeted: “No stakes, not relatable. I think I’m realizing: Shakespeare sucks.” The theater’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit has just returned Pericles, Prince of Tyre to Lafayette Street, having toured the production to homeless shelters, community centers and correctional facilities — reaching audiences who can’t spend a day standing in line for Shakespeare in the Park tickets. Few Bardolators would argue that Pericles is the equal of Lear in poetry or power. It has a clunky, outmoded framing device, and its plot, which involves multiple shipwrecks, an unlikely resurrection and some extremely polite brothel customers, is tough to respect. But this 100-minute show (about half the length of Lear) is feisty and involving. And while I’ve never believed that great art has to be “relatable,” the audience members who watched the final act of Pericles with tears in their eyes seemed to find it so. The director, Rob Melrose, has assembled a diverse eight-member cast, costumed in attractive neutrals, to play some 40 roles and provide the backing music, too.