The latest of the NT live series this is a screening of the sellout ‘chamber’ production of CORIOLANUS directed by Josie Rourke and starring Tom Hiddleston that was recently at the Donmar Warehouse in London. One of Shakespeare’s last tragedies , ‘Coriolanus’  is a savage play about a great Roman warrior who disdains the common people and hurtles towards self destruction. He is a great soldier, but a failure as a politician.

It transfers marvelously from stage to screen and is a gripping, chilling bloody and violent production. While set in ancient Rome, it has been updated to ‘now’ with a contemporary, sparse look and feel that is timeless. There is graffiti on the wall , a ladder , a red square drawn as stage space and chairs .Opening the show young Martius , Coriolanus’  son,  traces a square-shaped form on the stage in blood-red paint while unruly  plebeians, in modern hoodies, spray demands for “Grain at our own price” on the graffiti-strewn back wall.

The often-confusing battle-scenes at Corioli are brilliantly portrayed through an ingeniously simple use of chairs, ladders and  fireballs. When Coriolanus reluctantly stands for the consulship, we observe the citizens marking red ballot slips which are later symbolically torn to confetti as the verdict is revoked. We, the audience, the groundlings, are the ordinary Romans that Coriolanus has no time for.

The world of the play is suggested by Rourke with nifty economy. Understanding is also complete – anyone unfamiliar with the play would quickly comprehend the main theme – a mother-dominated military hero is in conflict with a grievance-filled populace. The wily plotting tribunes of the people (aloof, scheming Elliott Levey and Helen Schlesinger) find it easy to undermine him and exploit his stubbornness.

Handsome, magnetic Tom Hiddleston as Coriolanus gives a fabulous performance in which we see the  many layers of the eponymous hero’s complexity. In this production we are reminded that he is a man who rejects the accepting of bribes and who’s first thought, after a bloody battle, is for a man who sheltered him. Hiddleston however also shows Coriolanus’ foolhardy impulsiveness and political obstinancy: He magnificently delivers the blistering tirade in the senate against the people and their tribunes and leaves his fellow patricians shaking their heads in despair at his incredible blindness and naivety.

Does Coriolanus qualify as a ‘tragic hero’? Hiddleston show us a man ultimately destroyed by his own abrupt nature. Coriolanus also suffers from being a mummy’s boy and excessively idolised by his militaristic mother. (Deborah Findlay provides a striking, multi layered portrait of Volumnia as a ferociously doting woman whose attitude to her son blends tender exasperation and hero worship). Birgitte Hjort Sorensen (the Danish star from TV’s ‘Borgen’, who looks a lot like Billie Piper) is excellent in the unpretentious  role of his wife and is magnificent  in the powerful scene where the women beg him not to destroy Rome.

In the scene in which Volumnia, his wife Virgilia and his little son beseech him to spare Rome, Hiddleston shows us, with the utmost subtlety, the  aching torn sadness of his ‘split living’ and his understanding that it will cost him his life. This major scene was played with such intensity you could have heard a pin drop.

Coriolanus first kneels in tribute to Volumnia and later observes her bend a questing knee to him and the word “traitor”, tossed at him first by the tribunes and then by Aufidius, ignites his spitting fury. There’s an extraordinary scene in which, massively scarred and blood-soaked after battle, his face a mask of red and white, Coriolanus showers, gasping with pain.

We suddenly have a flash of insight into the loneliness of the man behind the legend.  Hiddleston ripples with arrogance and a powerful ,dangerous charisma that captivates. He also however hints at the terrible isolation of this hero who has been emotionally stunted and transformed into a cold military machine by Volumnia . His body symbolically suffers for Rome. There were gasps during Coriolanus’s death scene, hanging upside down like a carcass of meat, starkly staged in a simple single beam of light and a huge spray of blood onto Aufidius’ face.

The Roman enemy, the Volscians, are here shown as plain-speaking north country folk and dark and bearded Hadley Fraser as Aufidius  gives a terrific performance –  energetic and watchful,  a man in his prime,  a worthy rival for Coriolanus as leader.

Mark Gatiss gives a splendid performance as the ageing patrician/ politician Menenius:  wily, polished  and with a glorious , luminous presentation of Shakespeare’s words , right from his first monologue about the belly of the people . In this sweeping production he provides much of the political exposition.

This is a fast paced, witty, intelligent production that in Tom Hiddleston has a magnificent, imposing   Coriolanus. Performances at the Donmar sold out and tickets to the screenings are in high demand. Book now.

Running time – allow about 3 hours 15 minutes includes interval interviews and also a short preview documentary about the history of the production and the Donmar.

‘Coriolanus’ directed by Josie Rourke  and starring Tom Hiddleston is screening at selected cinemas from February 22 Part of the NT Live season.

http://www.dendy.com.au/Movie/Nt-Live-Coriolanus

http://www.palacecinemas.com.au/movies/ntlivecoriolanus/

http://riversideparramatta.com.au/show/coriolanus/