This summer’s 39th Free Shakespeare in the Park production features a four-episode production of Shakespeare’s epic tale, Pericles, Prince of Tyre in a new verse translation by playwright Ellen McLaughlin. The season begins with virtual performances of Episodes 1 through 3 on YouTube Live. Episode 4 ushers San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s return to in-person outdoor performances in Bay Area parks.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a Jacobean adventure set in the classical past. The play spans many years in the life of the hero and his family. The action ricochets all over the Eastern Mediterranean moving from one ancient city to the next with travel animated by peril and punctuated by near-death experiences, tempests, and pirate kidnapping. These elements make Pericles an ideal play to perform episodically in miniseries fashion with cliffhangers bringing you back to for each new installment. Episodes 1 through 3 will be performed virtually on YouTube Live. As each new episode is performed, the prior episode will be made available as an on-demand recording. Episode 4 will be performed outdoors and in-person throughout the Bay Area.

Episode 1: July 2 - July 11 on YouTube Live

“The sails are filled, the seas are met” begins in Antioch where a young Prince Pericles has arrived to woo the daughter of King Antiochus; but, when Pericles discovers Antiochus’s secret evil, he flees for his life returning home to Tyre where his loyal counsellor urges him back to sea again to elude the wrath of Antiochus. Pericles anchors at Tarsus where he earns the love of the people for saving them from draught and famine. Pericles puts to sea again where his ship and crew are destroyed by storm.

Directed by Rebecca J. Ennals

Episode 2: July 16 - July 25 on YouTube Live

“In you lies all my hope” Pericles washes up on the shores of Pentapolis and is restored by fisherfolk who inform him of a nearby tournament for the hand of Thaisa, daughter of the local king Simonides. Pericles competes and wins the competition and the love of Thaisa.

Directed by Carla Pantoja

Episode 3: July 30 - August 8 on YouTube Live

“The storm without, the storm within” The couple set out for Tyre, but Thaisa dies at sea while giving birth to a baby girl, Marina. Pericles survives the storm and sails to Tarsus where he entrusts his newborn to his old allies, the rulers of Tarsus before returning to the sea. In the court of Tarsus, Marina grows into a paragon of beauty and grace. Jealous for her biological daughter, Marina’s foster mother seeks her death, but before Marina can be assassinated she is kidnapped by pirates and carried off to sea.

Directed by Elizabeth Carter

Episode 4: August 28 - October 10 outdoors park performances (locations to be announced)

“This great miracle” Marina is sold to a bawdy house in Mytilene. Marina’s virtue disrupts the disreputable business and so is removed to an honorable house on the island where she earns a living as a teacher. Wracked by grief, a despondent Pericles drifts into Mytilene after learning in Tarsus that his daughter is dead. Lysimachus, the local governor, summons Marina thinking her grace might comfort the depressed prince. Thus begins a mounting exchange between father and daughter that ends in joyous recognition when Marina utters the name of her dead mother, Thaisa. But the gods are not yet done with Pericles. Diana descends and orders him to visit her temple in Ephesus. There he must recount the tale of all his hardships in full, for in Ephesus, another reunion awaits.

Directed by Carla Pantoja