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| Coriolanus |
What: Coriolanus, by William Shakespeare, directed for Slip of the Tongue by Alec Forbes. Where: The Meteor Theatre. When: Thursday, Friday and tonight. Reviewed by: Hilary Falconer. The tragedy concerning this play is that it's on for only three nights and most people don't know it's on at all. Alec Forbes' minimalist production of Shakespeare's last tragedy deserves better. Taking the role of Agrippa the peacemaker himself, he has extracted some fine and disciplined performances from a large cast and produced a version which is stylised but retains drama and tension. Coriolanus is a blokes' play. There are really only two female parts and Virgilia, Coriolanus' wife, is a thankless one, but Alida Steemson gives mother, Volumnia, the aggression and passion needed for us to realise why her son is how he is. Russell Raethal gives his all as Coriolanus. At the beginning, he threatens to make us see him as merely angry rather than arrogant and proud, but as the play progresses he successfully employs more varied emotions to give the character complexity. Graeme Cairns plays Aufidius, Coriolanus' nemesis _ and with acting like this he should get into Parliament. Respecting the Meteor's reputation as one of the best black box theatres in the country, there is no stage or set. When the audience needs to be given a different perspective or transported to another part of Rome, we were simply moved. |
| One of Shakespeare's more obscure, dark and prolonged tragedies. Produced by Slip of the Tongue, Alec Forbes, Director. |