'The Tragedy of Coriolanus' Off-Broadway review — a flashy new production of Shakespeare

Read our review of The Tragedy of Coriolanus off Broadway, a modern revival of Shakespeare's tragedy directed by Ash K. Tata at Theatre for a New Audience.

Summary

• Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Coriolanus follows a ruler who gets banished from Rome and then joins his enemies to attack his city
• The show features a strong cast led by McKinley Belcher III as Coriolanus; Roslyn Ruff as Volumnia; and Jason O'Connell as Menenius Agrippa
• The show's modern-day design sheds little new light on the play and is largely spectacle

If everyone is on camera all the time, who is watching the footage? Or perhaps, who isn’t? This is the conceit of director Ash K. Tata’s production of The Tragedy of Coriolanus, a less-sexy Shakespearean tragedy that founding artistic director Jeffrey Horowitz chose as his last entry at Brooklyn’s Theatre for a New Audience. The play throws the audience into a class conflict that pits the plebs against the ruling class because the price of grain is too darn high. If Shakespeare’s language isn’t your forte, scenic designer Afsoon Pajoufar’s wheatpaste posters helpfully explain that “Price of Grain is Too High.”

Coriolanus takes place in the early Roman Republic, with the people and its government on shaky ground. With characters staring down a power vacuum, facing off against arrogant leaders, and rebelling against the price of food, Coriolanus is ripe for a contemporary retelling. Except that TFANA’s production doesn’t bring the play into the modern world.

Sure, there are machine guns and video games and constant surveillance footage, but Tata does little to contextualize these tricks and show how power is (or is not) distributed across society. Lisa Renkel and Possible’s projections show every player’s live heatmap throughout the show, occasionally replaying footage during scene transitions but otherwise never compromising on a live feed.

Surveillance may be something we all experience today, but it is not an equalizer. Protestors, undocumented immigrants, politicians, lobbyists, and college students do not all share in the weaponization of surveillance, cannot all use it to escape arrest or throw it in the face of an alleged wrongdoer. In Tata’s Rome, however, all citizens — pleb and patrician, soldier and slain — are watched equally. Nothing is done with the footage. It simply exists, reminding us that Shakespeare’s words have resonance in today’s world in a manner that is both insistent and lacking.

There is something a little juvenile about this setup, despite the technical prowess of the design team; is it really enough to tell us that something sinister exists without showing us how the state or a tyrant — as McKinley Belcher III’s excellently controlled Caius Martius Coriolanus is accused of being — can wield it?

Though costume designer Avery Reed differentiates the Romans and the rival Volscians in color, few other differences are marked. Both groups use machine guns rather than distinct weapons, and though the plebs look a little more ruffian in dress, their color allegiance is to Rome and its upper echelon. Perhaps this choice undercuts Coriolanus’s fear that the peasants’ loyalty to their country wavers in the wind, but if class struggle is at the heart of the play, this choice seems to betray the motivations of the plebs and their Tribunes.

There are no weak links in the cast, though. Roslyn Ruff’s understated power as Volumnia and Jason O’Connell’s heartbreaking valor as Menenius Agrippa balance the searching pain and sacrifice of Belcher’s title soldier. All too often with Shakespeare, however, the attraction is the lasting power of the unfaltering text. The story and the actors delivering it are reason enough to see this lesser-produced tragedy, but the rest of its trappings amount to spectacle.

The Tragedy of Coriolanus summary

In the volatile early Roman Republic, Caius Martius finds success and acclaim as a solider despite economic, social, and agricultural uncertainty. After a victory in the city of Corioli, the newly-named Coriolanus must ask the people to vote for him for Roman Consul. Coriolanus believes his military status should exempt him from campaigning, but his refusal leads the people to banish him from Rome.

Coriolanus then seeks refuge with his enemy, the general Tullus Aufidius, and they plot to overthrow Rome together. Coriolanus’s mother Volumnia and his wife Virgilia beg him to reconsider, but betraying Aufidius’s trust comes at a high price.

What to expect at The Tragedy of Coriolanus

The Tragedy of Coriolanus runs 2 hours and 45 minutes, including a fifteen-minute intermission. The stage is set up in three-quarter thrust style, with much of the action taking place downstage; audience members in rows further back may have trouble seeing some moments. Actors also travel up and the aisles and staircases to the mezzanine. The ensemble regularly congregates behind and around the seats as they form crowds of Roman plebeians.

TFANA’s production features haze, flashing lights, and stage blood. As with all of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Coriolanus depicts violence and death, with fight choreography by J. David Brimmer. Tata’s production features prop machine guns and accompanying sound effects, with sound design by Brandon Keith Bulls. Lisa Renkel’s and Possible projections also feature scenes of animated violence and profanity.

Who should see The Tragedy of Coriolanus

• If you saw Are the Bennet Girls Ok? off Broadway and want more scheming from Zuzanna Szadkowski — or just loved her as Dorota in Gossip Girl — you’ll love her take on Junius Brutus.
• Fans of Lincoln Center’s landmark 2022 revival of The Skin of Our Teeth can rejoice at the reunion of actors Ruff, Sarin Monae West, and DeMeritt.
• Shakespeare aficionados can rest assured that director Tata only made light edits to the Bard’s script.

Learn more about The Tragedy of Coriolanus off Broadway

The cast of Coriolanus anchors a production that, while visually striking and engaging, has little of its own insights to offer. Belcher delivers a performance whose range of introspection, however, is a masterclass among leading men.

The Tragedy of Coriolanus is at Theatre for a New Audience through March 1.

Photo credit: The Tragedy of Coriolanus off Broadway. (Photos by Hollis King)