I went to Coriolanus at the NT's Olivier Theatre on Monday evening.
This is my view of stage before the play started.
This stage set is actually the star of the show, almost a total distraction as it goes up and down, transforming from indoor to outdoor environments and also used as a huge screen for live action video projections.
The design and visuals are excellent, the colour palette, the lighting, the staging and the costumes. But the delivery of play itself, the storytelling, is lacking in many ways. I wonder if they spent too much time and money on the look of the thing, rather than concentrating on how Shakespeare's play might be better understood by the audience who might not already know it so well.
For instance, most of the 'actors' including Coriolanus himself, played by David Oyelowo, sounded like they were just reciting something at school without making those words come alive. Stiff and static, they stood there, feet rooted to the ground as they ee-nun-see-ate-ed their words in a metro-nome fash-on. Some of them boomed in that 'I am an aKtor!' style. There was a lack of inflection, of humanity, of reality. Most of the characters were therefore two-dimensional and unreal, practically every word spoken at the same level with the same intonation, with random occasional emphasis on a single word making it seem like they'd been told to do that by the drama teacher. However, in contrast, in must be said that the two actors who played the tribunes were excellent, highlighting the difference between acting and just learning words. Surely it's hard to act with/against others who are so wooden and unbelievable, and I wondered if these two actors had noticed or even complained or tried to help with their workmates' inadequate skills.
And then there's the cost of these productions. People often complain that theatre ticket prices are too high. Well, this production clearly showed where the money is spent – the set, the designer costumes and the tech used in the production are all top of the range and in many cases, IMHO, not even necessary. Oh, and the soundtrack which was often overbearing. Many times I could hardly hear anything being said on stage beneath the loud sound effects emitting from the speakers.
I clearly was not the only disappointed punter as I saw many people grab their coats and leave before the interval. I considered giving up on it myself, but with a niggling FOMO I googled the play to see if it was worth sticking it out and found an excellent review by Arifa Akbar in the Guardian which totally echoes my own observations.
I decided to stick it out if only to see the costumes in the final scenes and noticed some of the audience laughed in the 'right' places, often before the line was actually finished, in that in that 'oh ha ha, I get it the reference' way. I often wonder if these people are performing arts students studying the play, and it was probably them who whooped and clapped at the end. Me? I sat there stunned, wondering why they were applauding actors for simply remembering so many words. David Oyelowo looked very pleased with himself as he bowed to the audience, lapping up the attention, skipping off stage almost with a whoo-hoo. Creepy.
Yours, disappointed of Holloway.
A THOUGHT: I've just recalled something else that I noticed... This production has a cast that's approximately 50% dark skinned. However, I would say the audience on Monday was 95% pale skinned. Interesting huh.
And another thing... seat numbers... why oh why can't they place them where we can clearly see them? Here, in the NT's Olivier Theatre, they are embedded into the sides of the padded arm rests which are barely visible in the pic below but it's actually worse when you are there.
