Coriolanus
Feb. 1st, 2014 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wildestrangerOn Thursday I went to see Coriolanus with National Theatre Live. It's one of my favourite Shakespeare plays - I read Dorothy L. Sayers' Busman's Honeymoon as a teenager, and there's a bit where Lord Peter calls Harriet his 'gracious silence', and they have a brief conversation about Coriolanus. I was curious enough to go and read the play, and discovered that it's about a man who hates everybody, and being a misanthropic teenager myself, I felt this was quite the right thing to do and that he was My Kind of People.
Tom Hiddleston, unfortunately, is not My Kind of People.
Or at least, he cannot fake it well enough. His Coriolanus demonstrates his anger by being a bit shouty, and his contempt by being shouty with an occasional sneer, and is not terribly convincing with either. I couldn't really see why he despised the people, even though his lines should have explained it, and his performance of them added little to his character. Mostly, it consisted of declaring poetry with a loud voice and a lot of head-shaking, and a certain amount of pointing his finger. This is not unlike the problem I had with his Prince Hal and Henry V, who seemed somehow distant; as if the actor was not inhabiting his role fully. Which could have been a deliberate acting choice, a commentary on the performativity of kingship and Hal's struggles with it, but having seen Coriolanus I suspect it was simply the best he could do. When Tom Hiddleston plays Shakespeare, I only see Tom Hiddleston Doing Shakespeare, not the characters. When he plays Loki, however, I only see Loki and forget that there's a Tom Hiddleston in there somewhere. In short, he should play sneaky characters in the future.
Hadley Fraser as Tullus Aufidius, on the other hand, was excellent. I liked what he did with the kiss - considering the lines he speaks about comparing his current feelings with his feelings on his wedding night, his character only makes sense if there is a mess of pining and resentment for Coriolanus. And this all made sense because of his earlier acknowledgement that Coriolanus is the better soldier and will always defeat him, and that they can never be equal, and yet he seeks respect from Coriolanus. That aspect of the play as consistently well-thought out and well-executed.
I liked Virgilia - her character is famous for not speaking much, but the actress did a lot with her silence. With Volumnia, I can see why they went with a histrionic performance of an overbearing mother, but I kept thinking throughout that this was the easy way out. What if she had been someone you couldn't dismiss as a crazy woman from the start - say, a cold and steely Lindsay Duncan, who might have taught her son to be a more effectively cold and contemptuous Coriolanus?
Tom Hiddleston, unfortunately, is not My Kind of People.
Or at least, he cannot fake it well enough. His Coriolanus demonstrates his anger by being a bit shouty, and his contempt by being shouty with an occasional sneer, and is not terribly convincing with either. I couldn't really see why he despised the people, even though his lines should have explained it, and his performance of them added little to his character. Mostly, it consisted of declaring poetry with a loud voice and a lot of head-shaking, and a certain amount of pointing his finger. This is not unlike the problem I had with his Prince Hal and Henry V, who seemed somehow distant; as if the actor was not inhabiting his role fully. Which could have been a deliberate acting choice, a commentary on the performativity of kingship and Hal's struggles with it, but having seen Coriolanus I suspect it was simply the best he could do. When Tom Hiddleston plays Shakespeare, I only see Tom Hiddleston Doing Shakespeare, not the characters. When he plays Loki, however, I only see Loki and forget that there's a Tom Hiddleston in there somewhere. In short, he should play sneaky characters in the future.
Hadley Fraser as Tullus Aufidius, on the other hand, was excellent. I liked what he did with the kiss - considering the lines he speaks about comparing his current feelings with his feelings on his wedding night, his character only makes sense if there is a mess of pining and resentment for Coriolanus. And this all made sense because of his earlier acknowledgement that Coriolanus is the better soldier and will always defeat him, and that they can never be equal, and yet he seeks respect from Coriolanus. That aspect of the play as consistently well-thought out and well-executed.
I liked Virgilia - her character is famous for not speaking much, but the actress did a lot with her silence. With Volumnia, I can see why they went with a histrionic performance of an overbearing mother, but I kept thinking throughout that this was the easy way out. What if she had been someone you couldn't dismiss as a crazy woman from the start - say, a cold and steely Lindsay Duncan, who might have taught her son to be a more effectively cold and contemptuous Coriolanus?
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Date: 2014-02-02 04:27 am (UTC)I enjoyed myself; glad I went. I wish I understood Shakespeare better, too.
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Date: 2014-02-02 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-02 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-02 08:56 pm (UTC)I loved it. I found it genuinely affecting, particularly Tom Hiddleston especially in the second half - my mom felt similarly. I also loved the staging. We agree on Hadley Fraser XD Like I said, horses for courses.
On 2 February 2014 20:55, wildestranger - DW Comment <dw_null@dreamwidth.org</p>
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Date: 2014-02-02 08:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-02 09:00 pm (UTC)Cinema. I saw the replay today at 12. It was my first time seeing a NT thing and me and mum bought King Lear tickets on the back of it.
On 2 February 2014 20:59, wildestranger - DW Comment <dw_null@dreamwidth.org</p>