Psychosocial aspects of performing Shakespeare’s Pericles
Authors: Gerodimos, R., Yates, C., Leipacher, M.
Conference: Psychoanalysis and English Literature: Reading (with) Freud
Dates: 02/11/2024
Publication Date: 02/11/2024
Abstract:Pericles: Prince of Tyre is one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays, and its authorship is contested (it is thought that George Wilkins wrote the first half, while Shakespeare wrote the second part). Based on the preparatory work for an international and multilingual production of Pericles by the Faction, currently in development across five countries, and a series of workshops with an interdisciplinary team of scholars and artists, we oFer a psychosocial re-evaluation of the play as intensely rich and current.
We note that Pericles not only invites exciting psychoanalytical interpretations – the dynamics of shame, gender, jealousy and violence being central to the play – but is also strikingly resonant in the current context of conflict in the Middle East and the plight of refugees and migrants crossing the Aegean Sea and the English Channel.
In this panel we introduce the Faction’s ground-breaking approach to Pericles, identify the central psychosocial threads of our analysis, and reflect on our collaborative work in the rehearsal studio between academics and artists. Central to the Faction’s version of Pericles, and to our work, is the idea of the “babble of tongues” and the question of how people from radically diFerent backgrounds overcome barriers of communication.
Rather than one of Shakespeare’s lesser works, we argue that Pericles oFers us a manual of reconciliation in a highly fractured world.
Source: Manual