Coriolanus

Synopsis

Young, valiant, proud and brave, Caius Marcius is an unequalled warrior in battle and rewarded with the title Coriolanus for his services to Rome. However, his arrogance and unyielding nature eventually turn his once beloved citizens against him, and he is banished. Raising a mighty army, Coriolanus marches on Rome and brings it to the brink of absolute destruction. But in the most famous scene in the play his family beg him to spare the city, their pleading finally breaks him and by agreeing, he condemns himself to bloody murder.

Our Review:

7 March 2007

For a play so highly-esteemed (T S Eliot thought it one of Shakespeare's most successful), Coriolanus is seldom seen. This may be because it is a work which is easier to admire than to love, a situation Gregory Doran's production, the last ever in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre before it is gutted, leaves unchanged.

If ever an actor seemed born to play the warrior it is William Houston, whose acclaimed performance as Sejanus last year seems, in retrospect, to be a dry run for his role here. Typically Houston offers a mixture of fire and ice, a nervy febrile energy governed by cold intellect. Here, by contrast, Coriolanus is at the mercy of his passions, helpless amid his foes' political machinations. He is at his best in capturing Coriolanus' boyish glee at the prospect of battle - as when, on hearing the clash of arms, he cries gleefully: "Oh, they're at it".

But for a production which promised so much - it is as star-studded as the RSC gets thes...

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Latest User Review

John Onions - 6 April 2007:

Poor set from Hudson. Houston underwhelming. Direction ridiculous - camp, silly big gates swinging back and forward, pneumatic lowering doors that don't go at the same time. A real air of 'Clearance' about it - sloppy, fails to mind the text, and, to add insult to injury, Timothy West, even on the second -last night, doesn't know his lines. ...

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