Coriolanus
Jan. 31st, 2014 03:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightSo I went to see the National Theatre live broadcast of Coriolanus at my local cinema last night.
Not a play I've seen before (though I have read it), and I've never watched one of these live broadcasts before either, so a fascinating experience all round.
There was some bloke called Tom Hiddleston in it too.
Spoilers behind cut.
And yes, I did discover that people need spoiler warnings for Shakespeare, when I accidentally spoilered one of the people I went with for the ending. Bad me. Fortunately, she said it didn't ruin the play for her.
Firstly, the play itself was great, I thought. The cast was small (fifteen people in all - one of whom was Mark Stanley (Grenn from GoT), the scenery minimal (a set of chairs, a lectern and some ladders) and the background an expanse of gloomy, graffiti-covered concrete. The acting was stellar all round. Deborah Findlay as Volumnia and Mark Gatiss as Menenius were particularly good. Gatiss was genial, a peace-maker, ultimately disappointed, if not broken, that his friendship with Coriolanus counts for nothing. Deborah Findlay managed to suggest the teeniest, tiniest hint of an incestuous quality in Volumnia's obsessive love for Coriolanus without it ever being in any way conscious. She was also totally brilliant in the scene where she urges Coriolanus to be more politic towards the tribunes and plebs and in the scene where she and Virgilia plead for Coriolanus to spare Rome. The look on her face when she realises that her success means that she's doomed her son to die was just so well done.
As for Hiddleston, he really is a bloody good actor. As the director of the play, Josie Rourke, said in the interval, Coriolanus is usually played by an older man, but Hiddleston managed to pull off both the character's physicality and the intractable nature that makes him unable to compromise and eventually causes him to self-destruct, and make them seem believable despite being relatively young (though, if I can make one small criticism, I felt he made the character a little too...I dunno, vulnerable? It is of course the same trick he pulls off with Loki). Even more believable were the tears he shed in the final scene with Volumnia and Virgilia. I really don't know a lot about acting, but unless there's some sort of theatrical gadget actors use to enable them to cry on cue, those were real tears (and real snot), evoked by what came across as real, deeply-felt emotion. How he (or any actor) can do that night after night (and twice on Saturdays) for months on end is beyond me.
As a staging of a play I've never seen before, loved it. Highly recommended.
Where the live broadcast part of the experience is concerned, it was weird. I had to keep reminding myself it was live, for one thing. Because you're not right there in the theatre, you tend to forget that sometimes. So there's kind of a barrier. You don't get the immediacy of the stage experience. On the other hand, you get something that people in the theatre don't get, which is close ups. Lots and lots of them.
And I do appreciate that without this live broadcast I'd never have seen the play at all.
Anyway, I'd go again. In fact, I'm currently wondering if I have the courage to face watching Simon Russell Beale's King Lear in May. It's had rave reviews, but that play is very tough going.
Trivial stuff: At one point, Hiddleston rips his shirt off and a stream of water comes down and starts washing the blood off him. Very nice. Also, a shout-out to the slashers with a Coriolanus/Aufidius snog (though Coriolanus doesn't look too happy about it).
Not a play I've seen before (though I have read it), and I've never watched one of these live broadcasts before either, so a fascinating experience all round.
There was some bloke called Tom Hiddleston in it too.
Spoilers behind cut.
And yes, I did discover that people need spoiler warnings for Shakespeare, when I accidentally spoilered one of the people I went with for the ending. Bad me. Fortunately, she said it didn't ruin the play for her.
Firstly, the play itself was great, I thought. The cast was small (fifteen people in all - one of whom was Mark Stanley (Grenn from GoT), the scenery minimal (a set of chairs, a lectern and some ladders) and the background an expanse of gloomy, graffiti-covered concrete. The acting was stellar all round. Deborah Findlay as Volumnia and Mark Gatiss as Menenius were particularly good. Gatiss was genial, a peace-maker, ultimately disappointed, if not broken, that his friendship with Coriolanus counts for nothing. Deborah Findlay managed to suggest the teeniest, tiniest hint of an incestuous quality in Volumnia's obsessive love for Coriolanus without it ever being in any way conscious. She was also totally brilliant in the scene where she urges Coriolanus to be more politic towards the tribunes and plebs and in the scene where she and Virgilia plead for Coriolanus to spare Rome. The look on her face when she realises that her success means that she's doomed her son to die was just so well done.
As for Hiddleston, he really is a bloody good actor. As the director of the play, Josie Rourke, said in the interval, Coriolanus is usually played by an older man, but Hiddleston managed to pull off both the character's physicality and the intractable nature that makes him unable to compromise and eventually causes him to self-destruct, and make them seem believable despite being relatively young (though, if I can make one small criticism, I felt he made the character a little too...I dunno, vulnerable? It is of course the same trick he pulls off with Loki). Even more believable were the tears he shed in the final scene with Volumnia and Virgilia. I really don't know a lot about acting, but unless there's some sort of theatrical gadget actors use to enable them to cry on cue, those were real tears (and real snot), evoked by what came across as real, deeply-felt emotion. How he (or any actor) can do that night after night (and twice on Saturdays) for months on end is beyond me.
As a staging of a play I've never seen before, loved it. Highly recommended.
Where the live broadcast part of the experience is concerned, it was weird. I had to keep reminding myself it was live, for one thing. Because you're not right there in the theatre, you tend to forget that sometimes. So there's kind of a barrier. You don't get the immediacy of the stage experience. On the other hand, you get something that people in the theatre don't get, which is close ups. Lots and lots of them.
And I do appreciate that without this live broadcast I'd never have seen the play at all.
Anyway, I'd go again. In fact, I'm currently wondering if I have the courage to face watching Simon Russell Beale's King Lear in May. It's had rave reviews, but that play is very tough going.
Trivial stuff: At one point, Hiddleston rips his shirt off and a stream of water comes down and starts washing the blood off him. Very nice. Also, a shout-out to the slashers with a Coriolanus/Aufidius snog (though Coriolanus doesn't look too happy about it).
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no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 03:39 pm (UTC)He-he! I admit that I didn't know about Coriolanus until I read about Tom Hiddleston's play. I know Shakespeare's most famous works but not everything about him. I learned something new.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 07:01 pm (UTC)It's perhaps not one of his better plays, but there's some interesting stuff in it. Before the play, they showed a short film in which the director talked about taking inspiration from various political punch-ups of recent times.
Looking at it that way made it seem much more immediate.
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Date: 2014-02-02 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-04 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 04:12 pm (UTC)So glad you got to see this too:)
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Date: 2014-01-31 07:02 pm (UTC)And the sexy wounds and transparant gown:)
Yeah, that didn't leave much to the imagination, did it?
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Date: 2014-01-31 07:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 07:19 pm (UTC)I was about three rows back. A bit too close for me in some ways because I ended up with a stiff neck from looking up at that angle.
Worth it, though.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 04:34 pm (UTC)A friend of mine saw it live in London AND saw the broadcast and she said both were fantastic experiences, just a bit different. :D (I am glad we get to see it at all!!)
Oh, and if they ever do an encore of the NTLive screening of "Hamlet" with Rory Kinnear, I cannot recommend it enough; he was the first Hamlet I've ever really connected with on any level (I've seen Fiennes & Beale live and video/movie performances of Branagh and others.)
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Date: 2014-01-31 07:07 pm (UTC)I would go again, definitely. For one thing, my seat was a little close to the screen. I prefer to be further back.
Lucky your friend. I tried to get tickets for the theatre (which I would have preferred), but they sold out so quickly! Every time I thought I'd got a ticket and tried to go to the checkout it was to be told it was already sold.
I will definitely go to an encore of the Hamlet, also to one of the recent Othello that got such good reviews (Mark Lester and Roy Kinnear again as Iago), though I shall forever love and adore the McNulty/Freamon version I saw a few years back.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 05:00 pm (UTC)Hiddleston was well worth watching (the snot convinced me that the tears had to be real), but so were all the other actors. I was interested to see how the live broadcast would 'feel', and the main weird thing for me was that we didn't clap, and so were unable to show our appreciation to the actors. I'd go again - in fact I might get Warhorse tickets for me and both the girls, and I liked the look of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time as well.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 07:10 pm (UTC)Our audience was an odd mixture. There were a lot of older people there (desperate for a bit of culture, I suppose), some people who I marked down in my head as Loki fangirls, and some about your daughter's age. What they made of it, I don't know, but at least they got to eat popcorn.
I was interested to see how the live broadcast would 'feel', and the main weird thing for me was that we didn't clap, and so were unable to show our appreciation to the actors.
There was a half-hearted attempt at applause but I think most people felt silly, so they didn't do it. It did feel weird not to clap.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 06:03 pm (UTC)And then there was the translucent gown...
I agree with everything you say. I also thought the female tribune was good, and an interesting casting choice because, no matter how feminist you are, you don't react to a woman with that sort of power the way you react to a man with that sort of power (and, personally, whereas I'm quite used to seeing actors of different ethnicities play people who would originally have been white Tudor men, I still find it surprising to see a woman playing a Tudor man, if you see what I mean...) And I thought the way the tribunes whipped up the crowd was very similar to the way certain 'fans' whip up other fans on ONTD and Tumblr... The speed with which it all turned to 'Kill him!' was terrifying.
I loved Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as Virgilia -- the way she used mime to show us an entirely different view of Coriolanus -- I particularly liked her disquiet when Valeria was talking about young Martius and the butterfly.
I had to keep reminding myself it was live...
When I first started going to the Met Opera Live in HD broadcasts, they only had one camera, so it was very obvious you were watching a televised event. Now it's like watching a film, and I sort of miss the lack of sophistication.
I'm currently wondering if I have the courage to face watching Simon Russell Beale's King Lear...
Yes. And I fancy seeing War Horse, as well.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 07:15 pm (UTC)Yes, which did not leave much to the imagination. :)
The female tribune threw me a bit initially, because my memory of the play was a bit hazy. But it did add another dimension to the role, which was interesting. I think it's the first time I've seen a woman playing a man's part in Shakespeare too.
And I thought the way the tribunes whipped up the crowd was very similar to the way certain 'fans' whip up other fans on ONTD and Tumblr... The speed with which it all turned to 'Kill him!' was terrifying.
Yes, indeed. Really, the conniving tribunes and the disdainful Coriolanus were never going to find an accommodation. Unfortunately for Coriolanus, though, they were much better politicians than him.
Now it's like watching a film, and I sort of miss the lack of sophistication.
Yes, it really was like watching a play made specially for TV, which was why it was hard at times to remember it was a live performance. I had to keep reminding myself, this is live! If someone makes a mistake they can't just stop and do another take.
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Date: 2014-01-31 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-31 08:18 pm (UTC)The two people I went with had never heard of Tom Hiddleston. One hadn't seen Coriolanus before either (the person I accidentlly spoilered). She asked me what else Hiddleston had been in but hadn't seen any of the things I mentioned (not a sci fi fan, hadn't seen The Hollow Crown). She got annoyed by the interviewer woman at the interval wittering on about how good looking Hiddleston is. She thought it was derogatory of his performance. The other person I went with said she'd seen the play many years ago (maybe in the 70s) with Ian McKellen as Coriolanus, but said afterwards she didn't remember it ending like that and that she'd possibly confused it with Titus Andronicus.
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Date: 2014-02-01 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-04 07:07 pm (UTC)I admit it never occurred to me that anyone would be bothered about being spoilered for Shakespeare.
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Date: 2014-02-01 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-04 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-01 07:40 am (UTC)The only two Coriolanuses (Coriolani) I have seen (until I get round to watching my DVD) the actors have been quite young so it never occured to me it is traditionally an older role.
How was the gore level? If I do ever get a chance to see it that will be the most important factor. I can cope with snot.
As for teh tears, I assume that if you can't tap into the level of emotion required for the performance then you can't be an actor at all, and tears are just a by-product of the emotion chemicals, as far as I know. It's your body trying to wash out the excess cortisol or something. So I'm guessing that if the actor reaches teh level of emotion that happens to produce tears then it is no harder to repeat nightly than any other equally high level of emotion.
Funny you say the Lear has had good reviews because it had bad ones in the Telegraph so I was feeling glad we didn't book (not that we would want to at the mo). The main criticism seemed to be that the production and direction was over teh top and intrusive.
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Date: 2014-02-04 07:11 pm (UTC)To be honest, I'm only going by what the producer said in the interval talk.
The gore level was acceptable. What gore there was amounted to a few sexy wounds on Coriolanus.
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Date: 2014-02-01 11:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-04 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-02 07:21 pm (UTC)Anyway, congrats for that fine gentleman Hiddleston you English people have.
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Date: 2014-02-04 07:13 pm (UTC)