A New ‘Coriolanus’ Crashes Shakespeare’s Tragic Hero Into the Digital Age

One of Broadway’s hottest tickets last season was a starry “Othello” set in the near future—or at least, that’s how Kenny Leon, the director, described it in interviews. In fact, the production, which featured Denzel Washington in the title role and Jake Gyllenhaal as Iago, offered little evidence of taking place in that timeframe, aside from the electronic, industrial textures of its incidental music.In Theatre for a New Audience’s new staging of “The Tragedy of Coriolanus,” in contrast, there’s no question that we’re no longer in ancient Rome, where Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus, the general who inspired Shakespeare’s play, is believed to have lived and fought. Director Ash K. Tata, known for multimedia work, has the story unfold “just after now,” as the program informs us, and it looks and sounds that way throughout.There’s David T. Little’s stormy music, which can suggest classic heavy metal remixed by a voguish producer. A large screen hanging over the stage delivers jarring images, from violent video games to digitally distorted representations of the actors. The projection design, by Lisa Renkel and POSSIBLE, also includes darkly chaotic footage that is splashed against Afsoon Pajoufar’s artfully ramshackle set, postered to establish a gritty urban vibe.The result is a lot of noise and flash, though the director was clearly intent that the actors would not be overshadowed. There’s a good deal of shouting in this “Coriolanus,” and in the title part, McKinley Belcher III, known for his roles on Netflix’s “Eric” and “Zero Day,” gets the opportunity to yell more than anyone else. Rest assured, he does not let it slide.Mr. Belcher is an undeniably charismatic performer, and he captures the bravado and wounded pride of this tragic hero, who is driven from Rome by scheming populists after he has shed blood to secure a victory for his nation against the Volscians, a rival tribe. But his bellowing and occasional shrieking hardly conveys the patrician bearing one expects of Coriolanus, who is done in by a refusal to disguise his disdain for the common people.Two traditionally male characters who figure prominently in Coriolanus’s fall are presented here as women: Tullus Aufidius, commander of the Volscian army, and Junius Brutus, one of two Roman tribunals who plot against Coriolanus when he agrees to run for consul, sowing unrest that forces our hero into exile—and drives him to seek revenge with an all-too-willing Aufidius.Mickey Sumner, whose high-profile screen credits include AMC’s “Snowpiercer” and the film “Frances Ha,” proves a sleek, magnetic presence as the Volscian leader. Where some have perceived or portrayed homoerotic undertones in Aufidius’s relationship with Coriolanus, their scenes here carry a pronounced heterosexual tension—though Aufidius’s reference to “the maid I married” is conspicuously retained.Sex is less of an issue for the conniving, cowardly Brutus, who as played by a droll Zuzanna Szadkowski comes across as the kind of self-righteous busybody who preaches populism—of the left or right strain—and curses politicians and lay people from the safety of her social media account. William DeMeritt is equally credible and comical as Sicinius Velutus, Brutus’s partner in sabotage; you can just picture him, with his shawl and his man bun, handing out flyers and harassing students on a nearby campus.But the most potent player is the always marvelous Roslyn Ruff, who as Volumnia, Coriolanus’s adoring and frustrated mother, brings such warmth, wit, and gravitas to the production that your eyes never leave her. I’ll wager this Volumnia could have saved Rome herself had her overeager son just cooled his heels and let her take charge.That doesn’t happen, of course, and this “Coriolanus” hammers home the consequences with all the subtlety of a heart attack. If that’s how you like your Shakespeare—or if you don’t mind sifting through the bombast for a few winning performances—this is your ticket.

A New ‘Coriolanus’ Crashes Shakespeare’s Tragic Hero Into the Digital Age

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