SOURCE: Clapp, Susannah. Review of Pericles. Observer (14 July 2002): 10.

In the following excerpt, Clapp maintains that Adrian Noble's Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production of Pericles downplayed the unevenness of the play and notes that its setting reflected exotic absurdity in the juxtaposing of a chamber of horrors with Ali Baba's cave.

Adrian Noble may be leaving the RSC in a mess, but he's brought a sparkle to its season at the Roundhouse. His production of Pericles is the liveliest thing seen there so far.

The exotic absurdity of Shakespeare's play is indulged to the hilt. In Peter McKintosh's design, the old steam-engine repair house becomes a chamber of horrors—severed heads swing like conkers on long ropes—and an Ali Baba's cave of delights, twinkling with lanterns, smelly with incense. A (sometimes overwhelming) eastern band of bouzouki, percussion and tuba thrums away. The goddess Diana dangles from the roof...