Coriolanus

Good afternoon audience! last night I went to see the Donmar warehouses performance of Coriolanus which is a Shakespearean play which was believed to have been written in 1605 or 1608, its not one of his most well known pieces but it is very good.
The story follows Caius Marcius who is a brilliant warrior and praised for the conquer of Corioles in which he single handedly forced the gates open and slayed the Volscian force. However back in the great city of Rome people grow angry because of grain shortages and blame Caius for this shortage, he makes matters worse by calling them plebeians who were unworthy of the grain. After being named Coriolanus he is convinced by his mother to run for Consul, he collects his votes with little effort, mocking and lying to the people but Brutus and Sicinius plan a scheme which leads to Marcius being banished.
The play then follows Coriolanus's road to revenge that becomes twisted; he intends to destroy Rome for their insolence.

Honestly I'm not the biggest lover of Shakespearean plays because I sometimes struggle with the dialogue this however was very easy to follow, it was simple and understandable. What was great about the entire play was that it involved both comedy which was mostly given by Tom Hiddleston himself and Matt Gatiss, the humour coexisted with the tragedy and sadness of the play which messed with your emotions, I was laughing, then I was sad and thats all thanks to the direction of the play and the actors who were brilliant.

There were a few things very interesting about the play and number 1 was the size of the stage, it was tiny but it worked very well, there weren't any distractions; just the actors and a spot light. number 2 props were limited, they literally used nothing all they had were their brilliantly designed costumes and swords plus with the occasional down pour of gravel from explosions which looked great. Number 3, it was live which made the experience very interesting and really showed off the actors abilities and I'll explain why.
There is a lot of crying in it and they all cry on command whereas a film you have takes to get it right. These actors had one chance and they nailed it, seeing Tom cry was heart breaking because this was the crucial scene in which we see Coriolanus realise his mistakes and he bursts into tears, it was a fantastic scene that was beautiful and heart warming in many ways.

During the beginning there was a fight which was choreographed very well between Coriolanus and Aufidius I just wish there was more between them however they do share some great scenes and for the "fan girls" Tom kisses Hadley (Audisdius) No word of a lie, I heard people gasp! and the same happened when Tom had a shower to rinse his wounds, a gasp over hear, then a grunt over there? and the few occasional "oooh's" the atmosphere from the cinema itself made it even more enjoyable.

The producer pulled an amazing cast out of her hat we had the amazing Tom Hiddleston who portrayed Coriolanus amazingly what was unique and clearly explained by the producer was that Marcius is usually an older person but instead they made him younger so he could be a more agile fighter and his mistakes were more... easily acceptable, as a youngster your going to make mistakes its just unfortunate that he figures that out a little too late and his hatred clouds him. He shows a lot of hatred towards people which boils up until he explodes giving us an amazing raging character but sometimes a lot of sadness is shown and its these 2 contrasting emotions that make his character interesting and brilliant. The rest of the cast as well are fantastic, some of the characters that stood out for me was Marcius's mother played by Deborah Findlay who created an over the top performance with comedy at points and sometimes freaky because she loved the scares Marcius had, she did not fear his dying whereas his wife feared each day. As I said Matt Gatiss was great, again like most characters he gave us more comedy but when it came down to an emotional scene he pulled it off despite being the jester.

Overall I really enjoyed the show, it was staged and directed brilliantly with a fantastic cast who performed with real emotion. The blood used was also brilliant, it looked real and it over the top which expressed the idea that Marcius is a killing machine. I would have loved to have seen it in the warehouse being there would have offered a new atmosphere plus they were really close to Tom... just saying!
If it ever comes back I would recommend it because its an obscure tale and I think it needs a lot more recognition, the film in 2011 with Gerard Butler was well publicised but I don't think the theatres interpretation was publicised as much all though the cinema was packed- maybe if they ran if for a few extra days people would be able to share their response. The stories great so if you don't intend on seeing the show and are one of the Hiddleston fans who missed out (haha!) then watch the film version whilst a picture of Loki hangs from the wall, thats the closest your going to get unless they repeat it next year like Frankenstein.

Anyway thanks for reading! again I have some cool stuff lined which should keep me busy for a while and I've been in talks with a friend who is designing a poster/banner that will go on my facebook or if I can fit it on here I will, so far it looks great, I'll do a little post on it once its complete giving my reasons and to see if you like it :)
thanks!
Until next time