The Stratford Festival has been the site of several pleasant dramatic excursions, many of which are detailed in previous posts on this blog. When I saw that Hamlet would be returning this summer, it sparked a renewed interest in heading north following a couple of years away. Due to our current worldwide health situation, however, the entire season's schedule has been canceled. So much for that!
In their good graces, the Festival has given a gift to those missing live theatre (and those many confined to their homes). The entire slate of Stratford on Film productions are being broadcast via the Internet for in-home viewing. One (at least, this one) cannot thank them enough for such generosity! While I have seen several of the films previously and own a few on DVD, this would be a chance to see those that I have missed. This week, as luck would have it, was one of those films: the 2018 production of Coriolanus.
This is one of Shakespeare's plays with which I was totally unfamiliar. Before sitting down to watch, I borrowed a copy of the Essential Shakespeare Handbook by Leslie Dunton-Downer and Alan Riding. (See illustration below.) It is a wonderful resource for learning about Shakespeare's plays, and it is a terrific way to prepare for a viewing. Each section details characters, plot lines, and external information about the play. If you can find a copy, it is well worth it! On this occasion, it gave me a grounding in the story and characters of Coriolanus. On to the play/film!
Although the play itself was a new experience, seeing the cast members brought back memories of past Stratford trips. Graham Abbey (Aufidius), Tom McCamus (Menenius), Stephen Ouimette (Brutus), Tom Rooney (Sicinius), and Johnathan Sousa (Lieutenant) were familiar faces; it was a joy to be able to spend the afternoon with "friends." Each was excellent in his current role. Two new (to me) actors gave magnificent performances. Lucy Peacock as the domineering Volumnia played perfectly one of Shakespeare's strongest female roles. Andre Sills as Coriolanus was captivating. He made his character's seething, barely-contained rage seem natural and not emotive. For a role as full of pride and arrogance as this one is, at times I almost found myself feeling sorry for him, a testament to Mr. Sills' performance.
The set for this production was as captivating as its star. Done in a modern retelling, the set featured television, office suites, a pub, even an automobile. The scene that involved two soldiers texting each other took it a bit too far. Never mind that one would hardly use Shakespearean language (and complete punctuation) in a text. The exchange went on too long and missed the mark. The death of Coriolanus comes as a result of a gunshot wound, not the expected sword fight. A switch from the the original, it still felt true to the work.
In converting the stage production into film, the director and editor did a masterful job with the camera. In fact, it became difficult for me to imagine how the staged production must have looked. The transitions--backdrops sliding, offices shifting, Coriolanus driving to Antium--played well on the TV screen. Camera angles switched frequently from extended widescreen to tighter shots. Cuts and fades to black moved across the screen; the final fade began with black creeping in from the top left and ended with a shot of Aufidius and Coriolanus in the bottom right corner of the screen before the entire screen was dark.
On yet one additional level, the scheduling of Coriolanus felt very timely. In an e-mail advertising the performance, the Festival included a link to an article about Coriolanus that appeared on the website of The New Yorker. Written by James Shapiro, the article pointed out parallels between Shakespeare's play, written in the early 1600's, and today's political situation in the U.S. While I try to stay out of political debates, the comparisons Mr. Shapiro draws are striking, including the characterization of the President as "another outsider lacking in empathy, who is pressed by his supporters into a political role for which he is completely ill-suited."
The curtain falls on another Saturday with Shakespeare. Thanks to the Stratford Festival, there will several additional opportunities to watch a new film (or even re-watch an old favorite). Like the old Loew's Theater jingle said, "Sit back and relax and enjoy the show!"
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