SOURCE: Macaulay, Alastair. “The Valedictory Play That Wasn't.” Financial Times (10 July 2002): 16.

In the following review, Macaulay maintains that Adrian Noble's Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production of Pericles was flawed, citing Noble's uninspired vision, Ray Fearon's Pericles, and the musical accompaniment.

Behind all the Royal Shakespeare's muddles, there lies the single mystery of Adrian Noble himself. Even if you accept that both the RSC's London and Stratford sites needed changing, why did Noble decide to by uprooting the company in both London and Stratford at the same time? And why did he commit the company to such major upheaval but then depart when the work had only just begun?

To me, the answer to these widely asked questions is linked to another question, which has been seldom asked: why has Noble, one of the world's leading Shakespeare directors of the past 20 years, directed Shakespeare so seldom in the past...