Half-Shakespeare, All Entertainment

Pericles, Prince of Tyre is one of William Shakespeare's lesser-known plays. Historical evidence has shown that Shakespeare did not write the play alone, and that pamphleteer George Wilkins had quite a hand in its completion. It is the journey of the young prince Pericles, and his departure from present-day Lebanon after inferring the secret of a riddle presented by the king of Antioch -- that Antiochus is in an incestuous relationship with his daughter. Pericles sails around the world, takes a maiden to be his wife who in turn seemingly dies during childbirth. Thaisa, his wife, is revived once her coffin washes upon shore. Their daughter, Marina, is entrusted to a couple who later sell her to a brothel; eventually, everything really does work out for the best. The salaciously good time that is Pericles is performed by the Black Rep at 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday (January 6 through 30) at the Grandel Theatre (3610 Grandel Square; 314-534-3810 or www.theblackrep.org). Tickets are $17 to $47.
Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: Jan. 6. Continues through Jan. 30, 2011