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The
play in question is a Shakespeare tragedy, one that was almost entirely unknown
to me before hearing of this live-in-cinema event (I mainly knew it for the
line, “If she thinks your behavior is heinous / Kick her right in the
Coriolanus,” from Kiss Me, Kate’s
“Brush Up Your Shakespeare.”) It’s named
for a fierce Roman soldier who loves diving headlong into battle to defend his
country, who has collected honors and trophies throughout his military
career. Despite this, though, he doesn’t
have the love of the Roman people; he’s brusque and hot-tempered, and he
vehemently refuses to flatter anyone’s ego.
When he angles for the position of consul, this uneasy relationship
comes to a head in a big way. It’s an
interesting, thoughtful story about someone’s merit being determined, not by
their accomplishments, but by their popularity.
Directed
by Josie Rourke, the production is sparse but powerful. The minimal staging sets up the scenes
effectively, and the actors wear simple modern (or at least modern-ish) dress
adorned with Roman embellishments. With
the audience hugging the edges of the tiny thrust stage, there is a palpable,
visceral immediacy to the piece. Nothing
detracts from the work of the actors.
If
you’ve heard anything about this production, then you know that the
heavy-hitter to discuss is Tom Hiddleston in the title role. I’ve enjoyed Hiddleston’s work with
Shakespeare since I heard him as Cassio in an audio recording of Othello (young Obi-Wan Kenobi, Serenity’s Operative, Loki, and Catelyn
Stark doing Shakespeare together – talk about a nerd’s dream come true.) He has a knack (dare I call it
Branagh-esque?) for making Shakespearean dialogue sound natural and lived-in on
his tongue. When he’s performing
something by the Bard, I could easily believe that he talks that way on a daily
basis.
Beyond
the general praise, he’s simply outstanding in the role. Coriolanus is a different sort of role for
him, brash and edgy, and he handles it masterfully. Whether he’s giving his men a rousing call to
arms, scarcely biting back his contempt for the ole plebs, or grappling with a
tremendous personal dilemma, his performance steers the show with force.
Other
noteworthy performances include Sherlock’s
own Mark Gatiss, also playing against type as an easy-going senator, Hadley
Fraser as a rival general (I wasn’t familiar with him, but IMDb tells me that
he got killed by a Cyberman in the series 2 finale of Doctor Who,) and Deborah Findlay as Coriolanus’s mother (yay for State of Play alumni!) Additional fun fact – one of Coriolanus’s
brothers-in-arms is played by Alfred Enoch (Harry
Potter’s Dean Thomas, more recently a doomed palace guard on Sherlock.)
Warnings
Lots of stage
violence, including bloodiness aplenty.
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