World famous - William Shakespeare

One of William Shakespeare's favorite ways of moving his stories forward is to move his characters from one place to another. Disgruntled "As You Like It" courtiers decamp to the Forest of Arden for safety and attitude adjustment. Hamlet takes a voyage from Denmark to England. He comes back with his gumption much stimulated. Macbeth goes to Dunsinane Hill and Richard III goes to Bosworth Field, the places where each villain receives his just deserts (violent death). Henry V goes to France. He comes back with a wife and a reputation for invincible valor.

No Shakespearean protagonist is more widely traveled, however, than Pericles, Prince of Tyre, the title character of a rarely produced fantasy romance. Though it is a fantastic -- literally -- yarn, one reason why "Pericles" is rarely produced is all the traveling that goes on in it.

The Penguin Books edition of the play begins with a map illustrating Pericles' voyages. During the course of eight extremely eventful voyages that take up 15 years, Pericles wanders back and forth between countries that are now known as Turkey, Libya, Syria, Greece and Lebanon.

Though he never quite gets to Arabia, his adventures and misadventures are like an "Arabian Nights" fable. If it's not one evil king, it's another. If it's not a perfect storm, it's a shipwreck off the coast of Africa. The interjection of pirates are the least of Pericles' problems. He loses his wife. He loses his daughter. Slavery and coerced prostitution increase the grimness quotient.

But, to cite a preposterous old saying, "When the need is greatest, so the answer comes soonest." Before the final curtain, and after the final voyage, "Pericles" concludes with the happiest of happy endings.

One way for directors to keep the complicated who-what-when-where-why issues straight is costumes. Here a fez, there a face veil, somewhere a turban, somewhere else a toga and there you have it.

But the essential clarifying element in "Pericles" is a sort of master of ceremonies, a tour guide called "ancient Gower." To be exact, Gower was 278 years old when "Pericles" premiered in 1608. John Gower (1330-1408) wrote "The Lover's Confession," the poem on which Shakespeare's play is based.

At the beginning of "Pericles," Gower comes on stage to tell us what the story is about. Between scenes, Gower reappears to clarify details and tie up loose ends. In the Seattle Shakespeare Company production of "Pericles" that opens tonight, Gower is played by Philip Davidson. Though not ancient, Davidson, 66, is a man with lots of Shakespearean (and non-Shakespearean) stage experience. "It's an odd part to play," says Davidson. "You fill an essential function. But you don't interact with the other characters. You don't evolve.

"But I do get to interact in my other role, Cerimon, the physician." Davidson is a veteran of the Southern Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. "Here's an odd fact," he says. "Pericles was the first role I played in Ashland. That was 40 years ago. I was 26. At that time, the company was made up mostly of college students. So I was the old man, suitable for casting as 'ancient Gower.' "

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After graduating from Wayne State University in Detroit with a master's of fine arts in acting, Davidson and his wife moved to San Francisco. Those were the summer-of-love days, when Northern California was one big hippie be-in. "My wife loved San Francisco, so that's why we went there. But it really wasn't a theater town back in the 1960s.

"My draft board was breathing down my neck. I had had a series of student deferments. But they expired and I was due to go to Vietnam. We were thinking about moving to Canada. But when I went to the Oakland induction center I was rejected -- high blood pressure.

"It's congenital. I've been taking medication for years.

"So where to work? I got a job teaching in Pendleton. That's where I learned about Ashland. I didn't even have to audition. I just sent some tapes and my résumé and I was hired. That was in 1967."

Davidson played 24 seasons at Ashland with time out in the middle for five years at the Alley Theatre in Houston. Eventually, however, Davidson got the news that ends many a career there. "A new artistic director (Libby Appel) told me that she had nothing for me," Davidson recalls. "That was eight years ago. At least our son and daughter got to grow up in that wonderful little town."

Now Davidson and his wife live in Edmonds. He takes acting jobs in theaters all over the country. Seattle audiences have seen him at the Children's Theatre, ACT, the Repertory Theatre, Intiman and Taproot.

Davidson has been spared shipwrecks and typhoons. But his life has been as peripatetic as Pericles'. And now, here he is after an eventful 40 years, playing Gower again.

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