The Neilson Nutshell, June 25
8/10
The exercise of power is a grubby business. Favours are sought, envy is rife and rivalries brutal. Coriolanus wasn’t bred for politics. He was suckled at his vulpine mother’s breast for one purpose: war. He’s more than a match for any of Shakespeare’s great killing machines (Macbeth, Hotspur, Othello, etc), but his murderous success is his undoing. It makes him ripe for republican Rome’s powerful political position of consul, and to seal the deal, he must sway the mob via the tribunes, “the tongues of the common mouth”.
That Coriolanus is an outlier in Shakespeare’s canon – having an unsympathetic hero and no subplots, among other idiosyncrasies – accounts for its infrequent performance. Bell Shakespeare last presented it three decades ago, when Steven Berkoff’s production transfixed you to your chair. Now, it’s back, directed by Peter Evans, and starring Hazem Shammas as Coriolanus.
The production is defined by its invigorating freshness of approach. What is generally a distinctly mirthless play here enjoys several laughs that are neither forced nor imposed. Many come courtesy of Peter Carroll’s Menenius, the elder of Coriolanus’ patrician class, and a man constantly flabbergasted by the foolishness of those around him. Heightening Menenius’ sense of his own wisdom and elegance, Carroll mines a rich seam of humour throughout.
It’s also an austere work, with Coriolanus himself the brutalist image of austerity, wrapped in a cloak of pride. But Shammas introduces another layer: an extravagance of voice and flamboyance of gesture that ride on the lines without jarring. Even if Shakespeare made his hero hard to love, Shammas makes us intrigued by the man and the sharp relief into which his relationships are thrown.
He has only disdain for the plebeians who would feast their eyes upon his war-wounds before they’ll sanction his consulship. He has a hatred bordering on love for Aufidius (a too tame Anthony Taufa), who leads Rome’s enemies, the Volscians, and an oddly flimsy ardour for his wife Virgilia (Suzannah McDonald, Shammas’ real-life partner).
The strongest bond is with his mother, Volumnia (Brigid Zengeni). Having raised him to be a warrior, she’s derived vicarious ecstasy from his exploits – wallowing in tales of his spilt blood like a sow in gory mud. Zengeni has the haughtiness, triumphalism and intensity to have raised this monster. The play’s key scene, however, where (with Coriolanus having sided with the Volscians after being banished) she pleads with him to spare Rome, partially goes missing. Something about Evans’ staging and Zengeni’s performance falls short of the searing heat that alone should change Coriolanus’ mind.
The traverse staging creates a huge playing area between the banks of seats, along which the 10-strong cast roll a wheeled rostrum to define different scenes. Initially effective, this becomes fussy when moved too often, chewing up time in a three-hour show. But the production is coherent in its vision, and draws from Shammas a performance that rises towards the monumental.
Until July 19.
https://www.bellshakespeare.com.au/coriolanus
https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/bell-shakespeare/2025-season/coriolanus