ABSTRACT
In Washington, the political city, political Pericles. In May and June of 1998 the Washington Shakespeare Company presented Pericles in a warehouse adapted as a theatre. The production, directed by Joe Banno with Cam McGee as dramaturg, had two main innovations: first, rather than the play moving from place to place while the audience remained fixed, there were seven small stages, and at appropriate moments the tour guide, Gower, led the audience from one to the next. Next, Pericles’ ‘journey from innocence through disillusionment’ was identified with the America of the decades from 1968-98, ‘with all its true-or-false idols in place: country living, military might, counter-culturalism, higher learning, Reaganomics, scientific research, God, and of course, sex’ (Banno 1998).1 To assist the audience, a three-page handout listed major political and cultural events in the United States between 1968-70, 1977-81 and 1996-98, beginning with the Tet Offensive under President Johnson and concluding under President Clinton with the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit and a recent school shooting.
