Coriolanus at Donmar Warehouse - Review

From my hibernation at Mother Goose's over the holidays, I've typed up my experience of seeing Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse that is still on my mind. Normal service shall presume, but for now, I am on factory reset button till the 5th.

I was exceptionally lucky once again to get these tickets, I've done well this year. The draw of some super talent including Mark Gatiss, Hadley Fraser and the power house Tom Hiddleston made this show sell out instantly.A chance mooching around on the ticket website over the summer, I saw two returns pop up and in the basket they went.

The Donmar is a very small intimate theatre with a mere 285 seats over two levels. There is no platformed stage, the actors have only a small square to perform in right in front of their audience, I guess this is what draws the actors in to perform here. My buddy and I were seated second row in the middle, being so close to the action was quite incredible. The barrier was taken away and you really felt part of it. Having a 6ft warrior with battle wounds standing in front of you, shedding tears at betraying his own family and people was incredible - it was emotional, guys.

Being far from a Shakespeare expert, the little I read up about this play before hand, I learnt it is a tradgedy of Caius Martius Coriolanus, a Roman general on returning from war is turned on by his own people. I also learnt it was specifically written for a smaller audience in a intimate environment, where the loud cries and noise from a small cast, creates a sense of something much larger. Three actors presented the voice for a whole town, they each played a lot of characters, from barmaids and servants to army men and fighters. They darted around the theatre, standing on different levels and it really worked.

The set was very simple, the back wall was the building's original brick work with Roman graffiti, a few scenes had the addition of projections. There was a ladder in the middle which led to the ceiling, this is how Coriolanus single handled conquers a rival town crossing over the town wall. It stands there the entire time as a reminder of his actions and courage. A single row of chairs start at the back wall, one for nearly each actor (Coriolanus stands the entire time), when a actor is not in the scene, they sit unanimated. During scenes the chairs are dragged forward in a line, great use of something to basic but dramatically used as a line of defence in action.

There were some powerful brutal scenes, lot of blood and drama, with unconvincing blunt swords but you got the idea. All the performances were great and the fact I'm still thinking about it two weeks on says something. Next theatre instalment for me is Richard II at the Babrican. Canne wait!