Coriolanus

National Theatre Live broadcasted the Donmar Warehouse production of William Shakespeare's Coriolanus, with Tom Hiddleston in the title role and Mark Gatiss as Menenius, directed by Josie Rourke, live from their Covent Garden home last month in Strasbourg. 

Here's our friends' informal review. (Spoilers ahead!)

Coriolanus is a play originally written by Shakespeare  between 1605 and 1608. The story was set in ancient Rome, where the empire still ruled and gladiators still fought against each other. It is based on the life of a Roman leader called Caius Marcius Coriolanus, a stubborn soldier with no aptitude for politics. The plot unfolds as his mother Volumnia wants him to become a consul and he is asked by the tribunes to show his support to the people.

There is a tug of war  going on  at the heart of Coriolanus between those who believe in the ways of the past (monarchy)  and  the people who welcome progress (republic). The theme is embodied in Coriolanus himself, who is like an old-fashioned Roman hero, proud and indifferent towards the people who he calls “voices”! But he lives in at the time when Rome passed from monarchy. The tables turn when two tribunes turn people against him so Coriolanus loses his temper, says the people do not deserve him and gets banished from Rome.

In this adaptation of Coriolanus, Tom Hiddleston, an actor known for his part as Loki in Thor,  incarnates the proud Caius Marcius, and does a very good job at that. The cast includes Mark Gatiss (Mycroft Holmes in the BBC series Sherlock), Alfred Enoch (Dean Thomas in Harry Potter) and other outstanding actors. The play was performed in Covent Garden, where the actors had to work in a very dark and small place with as minimal props as possible. But that never stopped them from presenting a distinguished  production, though the only props they had were a ladder and a wall painted red in the bottom half and grey on top.

The actors moved the chairs frequently and made everything seem so real, that there was no need for extra lights and fancy fake sculptures to present the ancient Rome. The only actor with a real Roman armor was Hiddleston who wore a bronze-leather breastplate, leather cuffs, and a lifelike gladius. The rest, oddly as it seems, were dressed as ordinary citizens-and yet everything seemed realistic to me. The performance was very active, with a lot of physical movements such as jabbing, pushing, and an epic sword fight. To get us even more excited, the wounds were made to look real: fake blood and latex to imitate ripped skin. Coriolauns’s wounds represented his glory and feats in the war; each one of them a mark of pride and bravery which testified to his services. The actors really did a brilliant job at portraying their characters. The dignity of the screaming Hiddleston’s moved me, made me feel sorry and stand up for him. It made me step into the play, and feel the emotions and frustration Coriolanus was feeling. This production was so well done, that in fact when the interval stroke, I even forgot I was in the cinema- and no I didn't think I was in Covent Garden either ! I was in the ancient Rome.

As in all classic tragedies, this plays ends with a death, a gruesome death. I think you can guess who dies, but the second part of the play was filled with suspenseful actions, back-stabbing, a few kisses here and there and a mind-blowing final scene of course. The final scene was extremely well done! Not just in performing, but in arousing the feelings! You feel tons of paradoxical feelings when Coriolanus's wife, mother and son beg him to have mercy and attempt to beat some sense into him. They succeed and a few minutes later his former enemy and current ally hangs him upside down like a pig to be slaughtered and slits his throat out of jealousy and rage. The life of a man so glorious (well hot-headed too!) ends in a heartbeat. I’d like to know how the director made it look so real because it really looked like blood dripping from his torn throat. 

It was worth watching not only because the second sexiest man alive was playing the ruthless and miserable covered-in-sexy-wounds Coriolanus  but there was a shower scene too! (Sorry Shakespeare! )

                                            Eva Gomes, Stefanie Matei