Pericles:

Words: Alexis Quinn Chamberlain

Photo: Courtesy Jobsite Theater

With a season consisting of plays telling of everything from the murder of an Irish National Liberation Army enforcer’s beloved cat to a trial for the Devil (which the audience attended as would-be jurors), Jobsite Theater, the resident theater company at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, has chosen yet another eclectic, over-the-top story to conclude their tenth season.

Putting an old spin on a classic Shakespearean tale, Jobsite’s Pericles adapts the forgotten script for Pericles, Prince of Tyre, transforming ancient Greek figures and Shakespearean verse into a rock-based musical about a high-ranking New York Mafia family.

“It's like a rock concert, a musical and a mob story all wrapped up into one,” says Neil Gobioff, one half of the duo earning Pericles playwright credits.

But despite incorporating typical music and dialogue, don’t expect Pericles to be like anything you’ve ever seen before; the Jobsite crew pride themselves on turning a stale, irrelevant play into something almost everyone can appreciate.

“Don't think of cheesy show tunes - think of it as if The Sopranos made a musical with a soundtrack by a fusion of The Minutemen and The Replacements,” says David Jenkins, Jobsite's artistic director and director of Pericles. “For anyone who hates what passes for a rock musical, this is for you; if you love great music or acting, if you love the mob genre, if you love a good story or a good laugh, and even if you love Shakespeare - this is a must see.”

Set in contemporary America, Pericles follows the journey of Perry, “Prince of Tires,” and his epic, coming-of-age journey from “prince” to “king” within the mob family.

After getting tangled in a web of Mafia incest and lies, Perry uncovers a potentially lethal secret and flees Brooklyn and his mob ties, ultimately ending up in Cape Cod. Throughout his fugitive journey, Perry evades mob hits, discovers how to deal with loss and encounters a plethora of life-changing characters - including the love of his life - and ultimately learns the true value of honor, love and loyalty.

“At the core, this is a story of great love and loss,” Jenkins says. “It’s about balancing business and family and what love, honor and respect really mean. It’s an epic play that covers 18 years and all of these powerful, fascinating characters.”

Although the major plot and structure of Shakespeare’s original play remains securely intact, Jobsite’s adaptation of Pericles strays away from the original as much as possible, making the play modern and relevant to today’s audience.

“I’ve really never seen anything like this,” says former Tampa resident Joe Popp, who originally cooked up the idea and acts as part composer, part lyricist and part drummer. “Most adaptations keep the original language, but this production uses original dialogue that could be straight out of The Sopranos, Goodfellas, or The Godfather.”

But remodeling conventional verse and adding a kick-ass punk-rock soundtrack aren’t the only elements of the original play Jobsite revamped for their stage.

“If Shakespeare's name wasn't attached to it, I think it would be a forgotten script,” says Shawn Paonessa, who also earns a playwright credit. “The original has several random and detached plotlines, some of which just stop happening or start in the middle of the play. Characters are introduced and never appear again. We tightened a lot of that up.”

But regardless of the vast changes to the play, the original text from a riddle given to Pericles, Prince of Tyre, in Act I of Shakespeare's original piece is, surprisingly, incorporated into this fresh adaptation.

“‘Viper’ is straight out of the text. The chorus is almost word for word from the original play - it's one of the few passages that remain,” says Popp. “It's interesting because the writing is so good. This is my second Shakespeare adaptation, and his writing really lends itself to the rock format.”

Keeping with the modernization of traditional theater, Pericles adds elements rarely seen onstage - for instance, the incorporation of video to accentuate a specific setting or two.

“This will really help to show things we can't put onstage, like the grandeur and craziness of Coney Island, or the power of a storm at sea,” says Jenkins. “We're also using it to accentuate the music and the overall presentation.”

But including lesser-used theatre tactics isn’t the only thing adapting an original, never-performed play from someone as influential as Shakespeare has allowed Jobsite to take advantage of.

“As a world premiere, everything is open to interpretation with a clean slate,” says Jenkins. “The actors are creating characters for the first time, which is giving the creators ideas for things to add to the script. Even with my direction there's an amount of collaboration involved. It's really exciting working on a new show where there are no preconceived notions. I don't feel like I'm directing Shakespeare at all.”

When it comes to the originality of the play, the crew seems to agree: the mob theme and soundtrack are what make Pericles completely atypical and innovative. When it comes to the show’s highlights, however, there seems to be a lot to look forward to.

“The highlights will be the acting and the music,” says Gobioff. “I'm always amazed at how the ensemble can take the words we write and give them so much life - an energy beyond what's on the page.”

“This is something where the audience will be wondering what the next scene and the next song is going to be - it's all such a great series of events,” Paonessa adds. “This won’t be your grandma’s musical.”

Pericles plays until August 23 at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Shimberg Playhouse, Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m. Regularly priced tickets start at 24.50 and can be purchased at tbpac.org.

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