Royal Shakespeare Company, Barbican Theatte, London ****

Coriolanus may not be the most frequently staged of Shakespeare’s political Roman dramas although it nearly always gets included when a series of them are run together as here with the latest RSC season, under the banner title of Rome MMXVII.

Trevor Nunn also ran them together as the Roman plays in 1972 and since then, there have been individual productions – none more striking than David Farr’s against-the-grain 2002 Samurai version with Greg Hicks.

I say against the grain because in our aspirationally egalitarian times, we like to portray Coriolanus, the warrior hero flawed by his inability to make compromises or sell himself – unlike Shakespeare’s arch villain Richard III – to gain public approval as a furious anti-democratic exemplar.

Hicks played Caius Martius with absolute haughty disdain. Personal honour and the elitist’s sense of entitlement was magnificently and radically riven into his soul. Tom Hiddleston’s Coriolanus for Josie Rourke (Donmar 2013) was by comparison, patently vulnerable whilst Ralph Fiennes turned him on film, after his first stab at it for Jonathan Kent’s Almeida-Gainsborough Studios outing in 2000, into a full-bloodied, Balkan/battle-scarred martial contemporary.

Greg Doran’s Coriolanus or rather, season director, Angus Jackson’s is somewhere in between but in Sope Dirisu, they have definitely found a star in the making, a potential Othello if ever there was one.

Dirisu, making his RSC debut, an alumnus of the National Youth Theatre, has extraordinary presence, a rich vocal timbre and rare diction clarity. From the moment he enters, he strikes an imposing figure – an impression further heightened by Jackson in a production that heavily underlines the latent homoeroticism between enemy warriors, Coriolanus and his opposite number, the Volscian, Aufidius.

Bathed in gleaming blood and sweat, Jackson’s iconography is surely taken from recent blockbusting cinema, such as Gladiator – magnetic if over-played by a rhapsodic aria suddenly arriving from Mira Calix’s accompanying sound score as the brutal one to one armed combat with Aufidius reaches its climax.

As often remarked about Coriolanus, the political balance between ruling elite, patrician (politicians), the people’s spokespeople (trade unions, if you will) and the people/plebeians is left equivocal by Shakespeare.

Jackson’s modern-dress version on Robert Innes Hopkins’ harsh, grilled setting, softened by some extremely well-cut couture outfits for the women, especially Haydn Gwynne’s mother, Volumnia, hedges its bets.

Paul Jesson’s wonderful, dinner-jacketed Menenius is clearly a moderator used to negotiating and appeasing – an ability completely foreign to Coriolanus. Jackie Morrison and Martina Laird as the two Tribunes (usually played by men) are able rabble-rousers and as nonplussed as anyone when the public demand for Coriolanus’s head – or in his case, banishment – brings calamitous consequences: a march on Rome by the banished leader, now in cahoots with Rome’s sworn enemy, Aufidius.

There are clear echoes here for us, as alluded to in the programme about what happens when the people’s voice is given sway. Indeed, the strongest moment in the production comes with Haydn Gwynne’s tremendous Volumnia – glorying at every turn in her son’s mounting battle scars – prostrating herself with her family, begging for mercy to save their city from destruction.

Not having seen the production in Stratford, I can only report too, that despite the strength of the performances, the production looks and sometimes sounds a little overawed by its Barbican space. Such a strange irony since the auditorium was built when the RSC were the resident company and specifically designed with Shakespeare and its delivery in mind.

Still, with three more to come, Julius Caesar, Antony & Cleopatra, and Titus Andronicus, judging by the warmth of the reception, this is still a season of changing political insights fortunes, in tune with our own volatile, shifting times, to be enjoyed and appreciated by many.

Coriolanus
By William Shakespeare

Cast:

Caius Martius, later Coriolanus: Sope Dirisu
Volumnia, his mother: Haydn Gwynne
Virgilia, his wife: Hannah Morrish
Young Martius, his son: Taha Elamin/Hector Magraw/Narayan Ray/Teni Taiwo
Valeria: Katherine Toy
Cominius, the Consul: Charles Aitken
Titus Lartius, a general: Ben Hall
Menenius, a patrician elder: Paul Jesson
First Senator: Christopher Middleton
Second Senator: Assad Zaman
Sicinius Veletus, Tribune of the plebeians: Jackie Morrison
Junius Brutus, Tribune of the plebeians: Martina Laird
Aediles of the Tribunes: Bally Gill, Sean Hart, Rebecca Wingate, Simon Yadoo
First Citizen: Geoffrey Lumb
Second Citizen: Justine Marriott
Roman Soldier: Bally Gill
Nicanor, a soldier: Robert Ginty
Gentlewoman: Esther Niles
Herald: Simon Yadoo

Roman Citizens:
Tony Boncza, Bally Gill, Robert Ginty, Sean Hart, Christopher Middleton, Esther Niles, Katherine Toy, Rebecca Wingate, Assad Zaman

The Volscians:
Tullus Aufidius: James Corrigan
First Senator: Rebecca Wingate
Second Senator/Servant: Tony Boncza
Adrian, a lieutenant: Sean Hart
Soldiers: Georffrey Lumb, Justine Marriott, Christopher Middleton
Citizen/Watch: Esther Niles
Servants: Katherine Toy, Simon Yadoo
Watch: Assad Zaman

All other parts played by members of the company

Director: Angus Jackson
Designer: Robert Innes Hopkins
Lighting Designer: Richard Howell
Composer: Mira Calix
Sound Designer: Carolyn Downing
Movement Director: Lucy Cullingford
Fight Director: Terry King
Company voice and text work: Kate Godfrey
Assistant Director: Emma Butler
Associate Designer: James Turner
Associate Movement Director: Sian Williams
Music Director: Jack Hopkins
Season Consultant: James Shapiro
Casting Directors: Hannah Miller CDG, Helena Palmer, CDG
Children’s Casting Director: Barbara Roberts CDG
Costumer Supervisor: Sian Harris
Assistant Costume Supervisor: Holly White

Producer: Griselda Yorke

Music played live by:
Voice: Alexandra Ferrari
Violin: Eloise Prouse, Rosie Tompsett
Viola: Amy May
Cello: Sarah Willson
Keyboards: Jack Hopkins

Supernumeraries:
Clifton Bloice, Morgan Cave, Rosemarie Clarke, Joe Deverell-Smith, Brandon Dodsworth, Katherine Gee-Finch, Frederick Goymer, Norma Julius, Robert Moore, Sandra Panton, Rebecca Pratt, Karen Rowley, Shiv Sharma, Nalina Tobiere, Caroline Ward, Anton Wright.

First perf of this production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, Sept 15, 2017

First perf of this production of Coriolanus at the Barbican Theatre, London Nov 6, 2017. Season Rome MMXVII which also includes Julius Caesar, Antony & Cleopatra and Titus Andronicus runs to Jan 20, 2018

Complete review published on this site Nov 10, 2017