Pericles is a wanderer, and so is the London Bubble theatre company; its adventures in London's parks and open spaces are one of the pleasures of summer. Some may raise an eyebrow at Jonathan Petherbridge's joyously irreverent retelling of the story of the good king Pericles, a man who travels hopefully but who seldom arrives without some disaster befalling him. But this is by no means a lowbrow evening.
Petherbridge treats Shakespeare's wildly uneven (and at times quite tedious) text as the fairy tale or pantomime that it is, telling the story with zest and a sharp eye for the comic. Eric MacLennan's well-judged chorus Gower sets the scenes and the tone, leading the audience to various locations like a storytelling Pied Piper.
The production also has the good sense to know when to play it straight. Simon Startin has dignity and tragic stature as the king buffeted by fate and the tide, and Polly Nayler as his lost daughter Marina makes a real virtue out of virtue - not an easy task in the modern theatre, which values irony over virginity.
The evening demands quite a lot of its audience (this is not one of Shakespeare's most straightforward stories), and even more of the actors, who not only double and triple parts, but also have to deal with sudden changes of mood. At one point a storm-tossed ocean requires real gymnastic balancing skills as much as acting skills. As ever with the London Bubble, there is some excellent use of puppetry, and plenty to look at on the journey between one performing space and the next.
The company also makes terrific use of the environment. As night falls and the story draws to its conclusion, both Pericles and the audience are drawn towards the city of Mytilene. Gower and the cast lead us around a corner and suddenly you see the river and Canary Wharf rising up before you, as glitteringly seductive as Mytilene's fleshpots. Now that's what I call great set design.
· At Chiswick House Grounds, London W4, until Saturday, then tours London until August 24. Details: 020-7237 1663.
