Review: A playful reworking of Shakespeare's 'Pericles' at Boston Court Pasadena succeeds until the end

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Set us as preferred Actor and playwright Ellen McLaughlin, who originated the role of the Angel in Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America,” has put her own modern spin on ancient Greek dramas.Her “Helen,” a satirical reworking of Euripides’ tragicomedy and the eternal beauty myth, ought to be better known.McLaughlin’s modern verse “translation” of Shakespeare’s “Pericles” is now receiving its West Coast premiere at Boston Court Pasadena.

I’m traditionally more resistant to playwrights fiddling around with Shakespeare than I am with them updating Greek tragedy.Making Shakespeare’s plays accessible is a noble goal, but there are other ways to go about this beyond modernizing the text and diluting its lyrical beauty and nuance.When actors understand what they’re saying, audiences tend to catch their characters’ drift while absorbing poetry that’s still at the root of the English language.

But “Pericles” isn’t a play that should raise purist hackles.There is an authorship question.

The first two acts and the final three may have been written by different writers.There’s an assumption that the second half is Shakespeare’s, but scholars continue to quarrel over attribution.Whatever the scholarly truth, it’s safe to say that “Pericles, Prince of Tyre,” to give this late romance its full title, is a patchwork.

A strange epic yarn ignited by incest and attempted murder, the play is crammed with shipwrecks and miraculous rescues, devastating suffering and last-minute recoveries.I don’t think I’ve ever read the final act without shedding tears.

That said, the play requires an extra-strength dose of willing suspension of disbelief.McLaughlin’s most notable change concerns the frame of the play, which now unfolds in a disaster relief center.The conceit is that the worried and impatien...