Coriolanus, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford - review with pictures
This politically charged age offers up endless opportunities for theatre directors to rework the classics, and this Shakespearean tragedy presents more than most.
Coriolanus, a volatile leader with a large ego, has enjoyed a hugely successful career - in his case, in the military - and is now dipping his toes in politics. But he has a complete inability to negotiate and cannot help shooting his mouth off. Remind you of anyone?
British politics also comes to mind when the people vote to support Coriolanus for consul, one of the top jobs in the Roman Senate, and then change their minds and want to reverse their decision.
To underscore the 21st century resonances, the settings and costumes are modernday, the plebs in hoodies and the toffs in dinner jackets and bow ties. Director Angus Jackson leaves us in no doubt that this is a play about class warfare.
Sope Dirisu is persuasive as the ruthless and haughty Coriolanus who cannot bear sucking up to the common people to get their vote.
He is persuaded to run for consul by his overbearing mother Volumnia, played superbly by Haydn Gwynne, who speaks Shakespearian verse with such chatty ease, she could be down the pub rather than on the Stratford stage.
Volumnia made him the man he is - a killing machine with a fearsome reputation but also a man who is emotionally stunted. She strides around the stage, energetically mimicking her son on the battlefield, clearly frustrated it could not be her.
Unlike her son, however, she is emotionally intelligent. In one memorable scene she prompts her daughter-in-law and family friend Valeria to follow her lead by kneeling in front of Coriolanus with outstretched arms to beg him not to invade Rome, and succeeds where others had failed.
Dirisu's six-pack physique puts him in good stead for the impressive fight scenes. Both he and James Corrigan as Aufidius, his rival-turned-partner in crime, make convincing swordsmen.
Corrigan is particularly effective as the steely Volscian general who welcomes the banished Coriolanus like a brother, later to exact a brutish revenge when his idol decides to return to his family and Rome. In a compelling final scene, the troops fall silent as Aufidius strangles the great warrior with a chain, the only sounds his rasping grunts as he yanks again and again at the noose.
This is the last of the RSC's run of four Roman plays, and a fitting finale.
Runs until October 14.
