First published 2020
Pericles, Prince of Tyre, sets sail across the Mediterranean in search of a bride. His journey takes him through bizarre encounters with incestuous royalty and crude fisherfolk. When storms claim his wife at sea, tragedy compounds as pirates seize his daughter and sell her into prostitution. Yet the young woman uses her intelligence to convince the island's governor to marry her instead. This adaptation transforms Shakespeare's strangest work into forty minutes of rhyming verse that mocks the original's absurdities. Murray strips away the dense language while preserving the comedy, creating an accessible version perfect for students. The play embraces its ridiculous plot with commedia dell'arte style exaggeration. Each twist becomes more outrageous than the last, from royal perversion to nautical disasters to brothel escapes. The simplified dialogue maintains Shakespeare's wit without the linguistic barriers that intimidate modern readers. This version celebrates the play's reputation as Shakespeare's most peculiar creation while making it genuinely entertaining for contemporary audiences.
Genres: drama, adaptations, fantasy, comedy
Vibes: accessible, exaggerated, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, outrageous-plot
Setting: Mediterranean, Tyre
Period: Classical
114 pages · Paperback · Alphabet Publishing
Content warnings: sexual-content