The Challenges of Park Performance: Pericles in Halifax’s Point Pleasant

Abstract

As Peter Brook notes, any space can be a theatre. He writes, “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space while someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged” (9). While theatre can happen anywhere, the space in which theatre occurs is one of the most crucial defining aspects of theatre production. As Ric Knowles argues, a theatre space may appear empty before a performance, but it is never empty of meaning (63). The physical characteristics of that space and the macro- and micro-cultures within which it is situated inform the understanding of that space for both audience and theatre company. Despite the growing awareness of the importance of theatre space, there has been little scholarly examination of the influence of space on theatre production and audience perception (Knowles 67), and there has been virtual silence on the influence of open-air staging. However, more people will see a performance of one of Shakespeare’s plays in an open-air theatre than in any other venue (Heatley 65).1 One of the most popular outdoor theatres in Canada is Halifax’s Shakespeare by the Sea (SBTS), which uses the Cambridge Battery in Halifax’s Point Pleasant Park as its main playing space, and the influence of that space on the company and on its 2005 production of Pericles is what I wish to consider here.