PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE Opens At Greenwich Playhouse 2/24

Pericles, Prince of Tyre, A play by William Shakespeare comes to Greenwich Playhouse on Tues February 24. Runs through Sun March 22 2009.
Tues - Sat eves 7.30pm, Sun mats 4.00pm

Tickets: £12, £10 (concs)

While this rarely performed classic verges on the outlandish, it also presents us with some of Shakespeare's most touching and beautifully written scenes. Neglected for many years, Pericles hasrecently enjoyed several highly-acclaimed revivals, including Yukio Ninagawa's Japanese-languageversion at The National Theatre and Adrian Noble's swansong production as Artistic Director of the RSC. Fleeing the wrath of King Antiochus, Prince Pericles sets to sea on an epic adventure.

Following his marriage to The Princess of Pentapolis and the birth of their first child, it seems Pericles has found happiness, but his good fortune is short-lived. On his return to his home city, he is cruelly separatedfrom his wife and newborn daughter by the tempestuous seas. Devastated, he adopts a hermit-like existence until, fourteen years later, fate conspires to reunite him with his long-lost family. Embarking on its maiden voyage, Blotto Theatre has developed an original edit of Shakespeare's text.

The cast of three take on the characters of marooned seafarers who enact the story of Pericles; their ship's hull becomes a stage and whatever items they can find within serve as props andcostumes. In a case of life mirroring art, Blotto Theatre delivers an epic show using anything it canfind, borrow or steal. The Creative team includes: Benjamin Henson (Director), Sorrell Moore (Designer)

GREENWICH PLAYHOUSE, Greenwich Station Forecourt, 189 Greenwich High Road, LONDON SE10 8JA, www.galleontheatre.co.uk, Box Office: 0208 858 9256, boxoffice@galleontheatre.co.uk

Collective's production of Ionesco's The Lesson, this covered venues from the Assembly Rooms at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to the Teatrul de Comedie in Bucharest, where she won The Fesco Festival award forBest International Actress. Film and TV credits include Doctors and Holby City for the BBC. Ben Hadley recently toured in Germany with Romeo and Juliet. Other credits include The Caretakerand The Evils of Tobacco with Lewes Repertory Theatre and The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife and The Butterfly's Evil Spell at the Arcola. Philippa Palmer's theatre credits include Romeo and Juliet which toured Germany, The Shagaroundat Battersea Arts Centre, Wedding Play at Hoxton Hall, Lovers at the Kings Head in Islington and atthe Edinburgh Festival. Her film and TV credits include Diagnosis: Superstar and Channel 4's Balls ofSteel.

Blotto Theatre was created by a group of young practitioners driven to create high quality work forthemselves. Hugely optimistic about its future, the company celebrates a distinctive ethos: a love ofclassic plays, combined with fresh perspectives which come from devising workshops andexperimentation.

All of this marks Blotto Theatre out as a company with an important contribution tomake to Contemporary Theatre. The upcoming production of Pericles is characterised by an honest engagement with the text and a healthy sense of the absurd, qualities which the company will bring toall its future projects.

More than anything, at the centre of Blotto Theatre are people motivated by aboundless confidence and determination to produce work which they are passionate about, at anycost:
"You gods that made me man, and sway in love,That have inflamed desire in my breast. To taste the fruit of yon celestial treeOr die in the adventure, be my helps" - Pericles, Prince of Tyre.