Director Antoni Cimolino, newly appointed "General Director" of Stratford (he's been Executive Director since 1998), can get anything he wants for his own productions; and this Coriolanus is star studded, with superstar designers. Lighting is by Gil Wechsler, former head of lighting at Stratford and at the Metropolitan Opera House. Sets and costumes are by Theater Hall-of-Fame member Santo Loquasto, who has won Tony Awards in both categories, and Oscar nominations for some of his dozens of films.
Yet, this season-opener is appropriately stark, dark, and ominous looking -- no opulent displays of expensive-looking trappings (though I could retire comfortably on what the whole production would cost to put on Broadway). It is an action-packed Roman history drama, a personal tragedy, and a plot so richly nuanced that it can be interpreted many ways.
The basic plot is simply the rise and fall, triumph then rejection of a great Roman soldier, invincible against armies and the governing bodies of great states, totally vulnerable when in conflict with his domineering mother. But since patrician Coriolanus is contemptuous of the mob that supports him and yet aware of the growing power of the plebeians, the play can be read as supportive or critical of political democracy. And Coriolanus, exiled by the Roman mob and then, leading his former Volscian enemies as new allies, threatens to destroy Rome but is persuaded by his Mother to spare Rome and in doing so is destroyed by his Volscian followers. That final plot twist too can be seen as humanitarian heroism or Oedipal weakness.
Cimolino stages the work with emotional complexity and subtlety, keeping the action vibrant and the drama involving. Martha Henry plays Volumnia, Coriolanus' mother, with overpowering nobility and dignity. If she plays the scenery-chewing role with little restraint, she would appear to be reading it faithfully.
Colm Feore's Coriolanus is passionately committed to his singularity, a soldier's refusal to "play politics," and a superior's dislike of mob rule as well as a modest discomfort at mob adulation. He seems furiously involved in battle but never attempts to strike heroic poses. However, though this great general disdains the common people and favors the nobility, he does not seem to be in any way an aristocrat. The simplicity of his character, and his complete, shamed surrender to his mother's very deliberate posturings make him seem ultimately an overgrown boy. I can't determine whether Feore is deliberately creating such a less-than-tragic protagonist or simply lacks the star-magnetism to rise above Coriolanus' shortcomings. At any rate, I would have liked a more complex portrayal.
The huge cast, many of them playing multiple roles, give clear evidence that Stratford's is probably the finest acting ensemble in this hemisphere. Standouts are Paul Soles as Coriolanus' uncle and mentor Menenius, Stephen Russell as his comrade in arms Cominus, Bernard Hopkins and Don Carrier as the plebeian tribunes who plot against him, and especially Graham Abbey, who makes the enemy leader of the Volscians not only powerful but perhaps too empathetic.
