CORIOLANUS. To 3 November.
Colchester.
CORIOLANUS
by William Shakespeare.
Mercury Theatre To 3 November 2007.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 1 Nov 2pm, 3 Nov 2.30pm.
Audio-described 3 Nov 2.30pm.
BSL Signed 1 Nov 7.30pm.
Runs 2hr 40min One interval.
TICKETS: 01206 573948.
www.mercurytheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 31 October.
Bold, socially aware production.
This is a remarkable theatre autumn for the Roman city of Colchester, with two of Shakespeare’s Roman plays in full production as centrepieces to a season of work with school and community groups. While Julius Caesar is about to open with an all-male cast, visiting American director Tina Packer provides an all-male Coriolanus.
This is the least interesting point about Packer’s production. Whatever makes Caius Martius, the Roman patrician officially nicknamed Coriolanus after a startling victory over the enemy Volscians and their leader Tullus Aufidius at the city of Corioli, crack when confronted by his suppliant mother, is not revealed by denying the authority a strong female actor (the Mercury’s ensemble contains several candidates) could bring to Volumnia.
The political element’s far stronger. Packer notes that famine and political unrest were the play’s contemporary English background. A Roman citizen clutches his stomach as the patrician Menenius calmly uses the belly as a political metaphor.
The Roman commoners, with their aural rainbow of regional accents, and the Volscians, with their fur trousers and hulking presences, suggest a contrast between a city that considered itself civilised and the barbarians it sees beyond its gates. Yet both share a primitivism. Both sides egg their battling leaders on like a boxing-crowd wild for blood.
The Roman Tribunes, posts created as a sop to public unrest, vacillate fearfully in an emergency, but urge the people (audience included) into an ugly crowd-mentality with chanted slogans when it suits their purpose.
Against them, Gus Gallagher’s Coriolanus shows his distaste for the Roman equivalent to baby-kissing populism. Eyes rolling, barely sparing the energy to emit his scornful words, this curt leader only finds poetic force at the end, as he reminds everyone “Alone I did it”.
Perhaps the prosaic manner is the point. It’s a wonder the performance exists at all. Gallagher took over after the opening when Justin Grattan was injured. With remarkable brevity he confidently plays a role he had observed but not understudied. It’s part of this ensemble’s spirit and boldness, which this Shakespeare double, on the bold ruined whiteness of Sara Perks’ set, represents.
Caius Martius Coriolanus: Justin Grattan/Gus Gallagher.
Volumnia: Nigel Gore.
Virgilia: Stephen Cavanagh.
Young Martius: Louis Bettis/Joshua Mauger.
Junius Brutus: Marshall Griffin.
Sicinius Velutus: Tim Treslove.
Menenius: Roger Delves-Broughton.
Cominius: David Tarkenter.
Aedile/Lord/A Volsci/Senator/Serving Man: Adrian Stokes.
Roman Soldier/Nicanor/Volsci Soldier/Serving Man/Assassin: Michael Thomson.
Gentlewoman/Roman Soldier/Roman Officer/Volsci Soldier/Serving Man/Assassin: Joel Sams.
Aufidius: Ignatius Anthony.
Director: Tina Packer.
Designer: Sara Perks.
Lighting: Hansjorg Schmidt.
Sound: Marcus Christensen.
Composers: Fernando Benandon, Dan Cooper, Koji Nakano, Norbert Palej, Robin de Raff, Ling Huei Tsai m(Tanglewood Composition Fellows).
Fight director: Philip d’Orleans.
Fight captains: Tim Treslove, Gus Gallagher.
2007-11-01 10:28:47