Coriolanus
By William Shakespeare
in a modern verse translation by Sean San José
Directed by Rosa Joshi
Ashland, OR at the Oregon Shakespeare Fetival July 23 – October 13, 2024
Coriolanus Masthead. Design by Krzysztof Bednarski.
From start to finish this production of Coriolanus is estranging without approachable characters, involving movement, or interesting text. The show fails to bring any real life to the stage.
Coriolanus is a war hero who is headed to political power when his elitism causes the lower classes to block his assent. He joins an enemy city in attacking his home, stops when his mother appeals to him, and then is killed as a traitor when he goes back to his adopted city.
The play is often referred to as a problem play that isn’t produced often. I couldn’t understand that characterization when I saw OSF’s 2008 superb interpretation that spoke to the Presidential election contest between army hero John McCain and Barak Obama. Coriolanus in that presentation was a real, conflicted, flawed person who clearly fit the definition tragic hero. (See my review.)
Unfortunately, this election year’s Coriolanus (Jessika D. Williams) is a testosterone-driven, stuck-up jerk with weird onstage movements. Coriolanus, like all the other characters, has no subtlety and there is no reason to sympathize with anything he does or gets done to him.
The underclass that insults Coriolanus are equally unlikable. They are a socialist rabble that shout without nuance or basic thinking. Slogans R Us chanters with unhinged movements make me want to giggle (or leave), not sympathize with their cause.
The other nobles and Coriolanus’ family share the traits of inexplicable movements and in-your-face boring personalities. Lines are delivered without delicacy or variation. It felt like everyone’s goal was to get to the end of the play.
All the characters and staging suffer from a simplistic, rushed, over-the-top feel. I guess director Rosa Joshi guided everyone and everything to this unsatisfactory level. Ugh.
Some aspects of the evening deserve special note. The very last scene when the mob cuts open bags of red corn and dumps them on the stage, possibly mimicking Coriolanus’s just-spilled blood, got me to audibly guffaw. It was too, too much.
The other notable tick is the chronic moving of boxes around the stage by the cast. Stagehands apparently cost too much so the actors have to do it? But, more importantly, none of us figured out why the boxes were moving around.
Coriolanus set before Act I
This production uses an exclusively female or non-binary cast, a specialty of the Upstart Crows with whom the show is produced in association. I have seen and loved other Upstart Crows productions and appreciate that they give non-CIS males a chance to star in male-role dominated Shakespeare. The group purposely does not feminize the male roles, but lets women and non-binary actors deliver the characters as written.
But, for this production I felt that most of the cast was too stereotypically male. I mentioned the testosterone level earlier, and I felt throughout that the butchness was being thrown in my face. The actors on stage had the dial on 10 almost all the time.
The other intentional uniqueness of this production was that it was a “modern verse translation” produced in association with Play On Shakespeare. This is the first Play On show I’ve seen, so I don’t know if all the Play On works take eloquent speeches and dumb them down to the fifth-grade level. But, the words spoken in this production were simple, never uplifting, basic, basic modern English. I may not need old fashion words, but I miss the feeling of language artistry.
I admit that we saw the first preview, so technically it is not fair to call this a review of the production. However, the problems we saw weren’t simple flubbed lines or unsure blocking. I don’t think the flaws in this Coriolanus can be solved with director’s notes or changes, and, in fact, a friend who saw a later show had a similarly low opinion.
This was a very disappointing evening of theater. It sadly validates the statement that Coriolanus is a seldom-produced problem play.
Mr. Workman’s comments are as usual well considered and on the mark. I agree with most, espescially that the mission of upstart crows is most worthy. This was a sad case of too many cooks. Upstart crows has performed Shakespeare’s plays in Shakespeare’s language with a degree of clarity seldom seen, so I was looking forward to revisiting Coriolanus in this year of political turmoil. However, I have also seen other “translations” of Shakespeare’s poetry by Play on Shakespeare, sometimes more or less satisfying when the revisions were minimal and served a purpose. This “translation” was far and away the worst, leading me to believe the Bard never laid pen to paper in writing Coriolanus. More performances will not, in my opinion, improve this travesty. Kudos to the actors and director who bravely tried to make the best of this script – let the collaboration (between upstart crows and Play On) end here.
Hello Galen. Vilma Silva here from the cast of Coriolanus. I don’t usually read blog reviews but a cast mate mentioned this one and my curiosity got the better of me. I’m sorry that you and Hollis found nothing to recommend in our production. It’s unfortunate. Regardless, have a good summer, avoid the smoke if you can, and wishing you a better experience next time. All the best.
Thank you for your generous comment.
I love OSF for taking chances and doing things in a novel way. Sometimes I may not like the result, but I respect the effort and know that something in the future will be improved because of what I saw. It is so much better to think of a new approach and try it than it is to re-do a known crowd pleaser again and again.
The creative talent on stage and offstage is great. By now they probably even have ideas on how to quiet us old grumpy men next time!
Fortunately the smoke wasn’t bad when we were up. We saw all the productions in four visits to Ashland– we had to do a speed run last week to see “Behfarmaheen” — and saw “Macbeth” for the third time and “Lizard Boy” for the second time while we were in town.
Overall it was a back to excellence year at OSF… and I include “Coriolanus” in the collection of shows that made the year.