Turbulent Ecodramaturgy: The Winds of Pericles

ABSTRACT

In encountering Pericles as a written and performed text, we are struck immediately by the intricate currents that wind through the episodic narrative – currents of action and breath-guided dialogue mingling, twining through and above and under and about the fictive breezes of an imagined Mediterranean, as well perhaps as through and around the actual draughts of an open-air venue. We offer our ecodramaturgical reading of the winds of Pericles in the hope that it might likewise suggest the possibilities offered by an awareness of how a play’s aerial currents can affect the liveness of audience experience, the nuances of reception, and the related apprehension of environment – even, or perhaps especially, when it comes to works that are difficult to encounter in performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Wind
• shakespeare
• contemporary performance
• air
• ecodramaturgy
• dramaturgy

Data availability statement

The main research data supporting this publication are provided within this paper. Complementary research data that are alluded to but not quoted in this publication are not publicly available due to ethical considerations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. See (Gossett 2017), 55–70, on the case for Wilkins as co-author.

2. The method for gathering audience feedback at these events was ethnographic. The quotations from audience members in this paper are drawn from a combination of recorded semi-structured interval and post-performance interviews, a post-performance online survey, and visual observations. We conducted this research between 2018 and 2021 as part of the AHRC-funded project, Atmospheric Theatre: Open-Air Performance and the Environment. All participants have provided informed consent for their opinions to be quoted within this publication, either anonymously or by name, in line with the project ethics policy that was approved by the University of Exeter’s College of Humanities Ethics Board and declared to the AHRC. We are grateful to those who shared their reflections on open-air performance with us, as well as to the AHRC for funding our research.

3. Cerimon initially calls for fire to be kindled ‘within’ (3.2.79), but his subsequent acknowledgement of ‘fire and cloths’ (3.2.86) and onstage revival of Thaisa suggest a perceptible effect. Several near-contemporary plays associated with the King’s Men feature comparable effects: cf. Jonson, Sejanus (2014), 5.1.183 SD.

4. For a more detailed discussion of the potential religious significance of winds in Pericles, see (Jones 2015), esp. 108–24.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [AH/R013071/1]. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a ‘Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission’.

Notes on contributors

Evelyn O’Malley

Evelyn O’Malley is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Communications, Drama and Film at the University of Exeter. Her monograph Weathering Shakespeare: Audiences and Open-Air Performance is published in Bloomsbury’s environmental cultures series. She was co-investigator on the AHRC-funded project Atmospheric Theatre: Open-Air Performance and the Environment between 2018 and 2021.

Chloe Kathleen Preedy

Chloe Kathleen Preedy is an Associate Professor in early modern drama at the University of Exeter. Her publications include Marlowe’s Literary Scepticism: Politic Religion and Post-Reformation Polemic (2013) and Aerial Environments on the Early Modern Stage: Theatres of the Air, 1566-1609 (forthcoming 2022). She led the AHRC-funded project Atmospheric Theatre: Open-Air Performance and the Environment between 2018 and 2021.