Coriolanus
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Angus Jackson
Designed by Robert Innes Hopkins
Music – Mira Calix
Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
Stratford-upon-Avon
Friday 29th September 2017, evening
CAST:
Charles Aitken – Cominius, a Roman general and consul
Tony Boncza – Roman citizen, Roman soldier, Volscian senator
James Corrigan – Aufidius, a general of the Volscians
Sope Dirisu – Coriolanus aka Caius Martius, Roman general
Bally Gill – Roman citizen, Roman soldier, Roman Aedile
Robert Ginty – Roman citizen, Roman soldier
Haydn Gwynne – Volumnia, mother of Coriolanus
Ben Hall- Roman citizen, Titus Lartius, Roman nobleman and general
Sean Hart – Roman citizen, Roman soldier, Volscian Lieutenant
Paul Jesson – Menenius, Roman patrician and friend to Coriolanus
Martina Laird – Junius Brutus, a tribune elected by the people, Roman soldier
Geoffrey Lumb – 1st citizen, Voscian soldier
Justine Marriott – 2nd citizen, Volscian soldier / Roman soldier
Christopher Middleton – Roman citizen, Volscian soldier, Roman senator
Hannah Morrish – Virgilia, wife of Coriolanus, Voscian soldier
Jackie Morrison – Sicinius Veletus, a tribune and ally of Brutus, Roman soldier
Esther Niles – Gentlewoman, Roman citizen, soldier
Katherine Toy- Valeria, Roman citizen, Roman soldier
Rebecca Wingate – Volscian senator, Roman citizen, Roman Aedile
Simon Yadoo – Roman citizen, Roman soldier, Chief Aedile
On to the fourth of the Rome season at the RSC, directed by series director Angus Jackson, as was Julius Caesar as the first play. Togas and tunics have been left behind for modern dress. This is only the second time I’ve seen a “live” Coriolanus. I saw the Donmar Warehouse version with Tom Hiddleston, as an NT Live broadcast, and I’ve seen the Ralph Fiennes film twice. The last real actors version was at the Minack Theatre in Cornwall in 1965. I can’t remember much beyond a freezing bum from the concrete and the wind making it hard to hear much. I’ve somewhat grudgingly admired the Rome season, but I still think four of Shakespeare’s Roman plays in a row in one season was an unbalanced error of judgement. The critics rightly seem to have preferred Dido, Queen of Carthage next door at The Swan to this one, and indeed this year The Swan productions have outshone their bigger neighbour in the same building, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Too many battles. Too much gore. Too much politics. Just too much Rome, maybe.
It starts off with a fork lift truck moving three pallets of corn … the common people are starving and the wealthy are stockpiling cereals. Well, if you already know the story, otherwise it’s moving nondescript bags. I thought it pointless. Then the mob comes on and attacks a wire fence, which seems pretty standard in the Rome season, or at least just like Titus Andronicus. The trouble with a mob attacking a fence is that lines get lost.
Haydn Gwynne as Volumnia, Hannah Morrish as Virgilia
Coriolanus falls into two parts. Up to the interval, it’s mobs, blood and political wheeling and dealing, ending with Coriolanus’ eventual banishment. The theme is what the Japanese call the “tall poppy syndrome.” If one flower stands out above all the others, you chop it off. Caius Martius is a winning general. The mob acclaim him, but he is too arrogant and scorns the plebs. A place as a Tory cabinet minister beckons. They turn on him, led by the two scheming tribunes, Junius Brutus (Martina Laird) and Sicinius Veletus (Jackie Morrison). I don’t think we ever caught their names, actually.
At the interval, we were pretty critical. We didn’t like the mob, many of whom seemed to be standing around gormlessly. There is a minor issue with having lots of female actors dressed as mob or soldiers. They still look like women dressed up as thugs and soldiers. It happens with every play in 2017 and will continue. It’s the norm and the downside of moves to 50/50 gender casting. It’s a job for female actors, but not a great job. Being a spear carrier is worthy, but it’s not Olivia, Gertrude, or Viola or Lady Macbeth. Both the RSC and Globe are dedicated mainly to Shakespeare, and there will be limits. Gender balance might be achieved in a season, but never in every play. Coriolanus is a very male play when all is said and done.
Aufidius (James Corrigan) v Coriolanus (Sope Disiru)
Coriolanus himself was all admirable toned torso and gore, and the main enlivening bit was a magnificent two swords each fight with Aufidius which turned into a wrestling match. First rate fighting, and in the tussle, Tullus Aufidius, the Volscian general, found himself ‘strangely moved’ by the taut sweaty bloody body of Martius (who would become Coriolanus as a tribute to his victory). Each to his own. Otherwise, the first part was entirely devoid of leavening humor. Sope Dirisu looked great, spoke well, has enormous presence, but he doesn’t (yet) have the gravitas or power of Ralph Fiennes or Tom Hiddleston. He will. At the interval, I was thinking of this production’s reviews. We have been amused by Anne Treneman’s virtually invariable “2 stars” for every RSC or Globe play she sees for The Times. If I found every play I saw to be a mere two stars, I’d stop going. After a poor King Lear at the Globe last Friday, and a boring first part of Coriolanus here, that thought had struck me. So, at the interval, I thought, ‘Well, sometimes she has to be right.’ As here.
Sope Dirisu as Coriolanus
The play is vastly better after the interval, probably because we get less of the two Corbinista whingeing and plotting tribunes (here both female, which works fine), almost no mob, and we get much more of Aufidius (James Corrigan) and Volumnia (Haydn Gwynn), Coriolanus’s powerful mum, and Virgilia (Hannah Morrish) his wife. Hannah Morrish still looked as shell-shocked as after being raped in Titus Andronicus, but that works a treat. I’m not knocking the tribunes, both played well, but the intrinsic plot. Corrigan and Gwynn are the most impressive in the play. Paul Jesson is a fine patrician Menenius, with some beautifully placed timing on lines.
The scene where Coriolanus arrives at Aufidius’s house and offers to change sides is superb. Great acting, great directing. James Corrigan brings out the homoerotic aspect … Aufidius fancies Martius, who is puzzled, the attraction is not mutual, but he is disinclined to disillusion him. Corrigan is very funny indeed. The three waiting staff give the other welcome humor in this scene, watching the action, but also in the lines which indicate that if Aufidius’s household is not entirely gay, it is decidedly cheerful.
Oedipus Schmoedipus! What does it matter as long as the boy loves his mother? Haydn Gwynne as Volumnia
At the end, as Coriolanus marches to sack Rome at the head of the Volscian army, his mother and his wife and son come out to plead with him. Haydn Gwynn gives us a towering performance. Sope Dirisu brings out the Odeipus aspect throughout, speaking suddenly like a little boy near the end. We always see the mother is more important to him than the wife. Then after he makes peace, rather than sacking Rome, the final confrontation with Aufidius and the Volscian lords is excellent.
Paul Jesson as Menenius
Coriolanus is the second longest Shakespeare play (after Hamlet) and they had cut considerably, mainly the programme says, repetition of lines rather than wholesale cuts. They knocked an hour off, but the first part’s 95 minutes felt longer. The second half was just over an hour and totally gripped attention. Coriolanus is a less frequently produced play, and that’s because it is one dimensional. Still, in the RSC’s aim of doing 37 plays in five years, it was one to get past. The theatre wasn’t full, and nor was Titus Andronicus, also on a Friday night in this season. They are not broadly popular plays, I guess. If the chronology is correct in placing Coriolanus, Pericles and Cymbeline in a row in 1608 to 1609, there was a dip in form, and / or popular appeal.
On the other hand, the applause at the end was louder than normal, and we at last got to see Sope Dirusu’s wonderful smile.
Overall? Two stars first part, four stars second part.
I make that an overall three.
***
WHAT THE PAPERS SAID
Almost of them all preferred Dido, Queen of Carthage, next door in The Swan
4
Natasha Tripney, The Stage ****
3
Michael Billington, Guardian ***
Domenic Cavendish, Telegraph ***
Jane Edwardes, Sunday Times ***
Ian Shuttleworth, Financial Times, ***
2
Anne Treneman, The Times **
LINKS ON THIS BLOG
CORIOLANUS
Coriolanus – NT Live
ANGUS JACKSON
Julius Caesar, RSC 2017
Don Quixote, RSC 2016
King Lear, Chichester 2013 (with Frank Langella as Lear)
JAMES CORRIGAN
Julius Caesar, RSC 2017 (Mark Anthony)
The Two Noble Kinsmen, RSC 2016 (Paloman)
Othello, RSC 2015 (Roderigo)
Hay Fever, Bath Theatre Royal (Sandy Tyrell)
HAYDN GWYNNE
Women on The Verge of A Nervous Breakdown, 2015
Richard III- Kevin Spacey, Old Vic (Queen Elizabeth)
PAUL JESSON
Wolf Hall, RSC
Mr Turner (FILM)
KATHERINE TOY
Vice Versa, RSC 2017
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