The 3rd of September marks the beginning of the British Embassy Manila’s GREAT campaign; this is a seven-month long rundown of special events that allow Filipinos a glimpse of British culture’s best and finest. This year’s kickstarter is the sought-after National Theatre Live screening of the classic Shakespearean tragedy, Coriolanus. At the helm of the cast of talented actors is Tom Hiddleston, an actor well-recognised for his portrayal of the Norse god Loki in Marvel’s The Avengers and Thor franchises. The versatile Hiddleston is no stranger to live performances; he had previously joined the casts of both Othello and Ivanov, which are also Donmar-produced plays. As someone who had only ever seen him as Loki, I came into this extremely curious as to how he would breathe life into Coriolanus on an entirely different playing field: the stage.
Photo by Johan Persson.
Coriolanus tells the story about a war hero’s quest for revenge. Betrayed by the tribunes scheming against his rise to consul, Coriolanus lashes out in public, providing his beloved city reason to drive him out of her gates. Almost in opposition to the original’s traditional Roman setting, Donmar’s rendition takes a small-scale, minimalist approach. The Donmar Warehouse is as spartan as stages can get with only a small floor area and a single ladder as a focal point for the play. The Coriolanus crew uses these bare essentials to their advantage by onboarding a small cast of massively talented actors whose precise movements and strong acting skills bring a lot of the table. It amazed me to see how easily they were able to “transform” the setting by integrating otherwise distracting tasks such as furniture movement and cleaning into the very scenes themselves. In fact, I found myself paying attention to the goings-on in the background quite a lot because all those small movements really captured my intrigue.
Coriolanus (Tom Hiddleston) and Aufidius (Hadley Fraser)
Photo by Johan Persson.
Hiddleston, to me, is a far more riveting presence onstage than he is onscreen. As much as I find his portrayal of Loki laudable, his portrayal of the titular character led me to discover an inner rawness in him that isn’t quite as evident in films. This is a straight play – he does everything on his own because he, along with the rest of the cast, has no access to stunt doubles, technical enhancements or scene retakes. I felt at one with him in his moments of triumph and despair, which felt like such a success on my end as a member of the audience. I would also like to laud Deborah Findlay, who portrays Coriolanus’ mother, Volumnia. She was able to flawlessly toe the line between adoring and mentally unstable all the way to the very end – some of her big talk scenes gave me chills. The lovely Birgitte Hjort Sørensen plays Virgilia, Coriolanus’ idealistic and oftentimes naïve wife. She had little to work with compared to most of the cast members, but she shines particularly brightly in her very first full scene.
Volumnia (Deborah Findlay)
Photo by Johan Persson.
As for The National Theatre Live theater-to-cinema experience, the cameras are strategically placed in the audience area to allow the viewers to experience the production the same way the live audience does. I found it to be extremely educating as I was able to have visual access to elements that I often miss when I am part of the live audience. In a way, it helped me appreciate the show even more because I had been able to see everything up close.
Admittedly, I have not read the Coriolanus text in its entirety, which would make me a poor judge with regards to the faithfulness of the stage adaptation. I can, however, happily vouch for the inventiveness and creativity that went into creating this entire production. Though lengthy, the story is easily able to keep audiences interested because there are so many questions that arise one after the other. I found myself unable to look away from the screen in fear of missing out on something. To all fans of Hiddleston and the theatre arts in general, Coriolanus is out to pimp itself as a visceral, revenge-laden treat.
Ayala Malls Cinemas will be broadcating the live stage performance from London through special screenings on September 5 and 6, 2014, in Cinema 5, Greenbelt 3, Makati. Three screenings for both days (3pm, 6:30pm, and 10pm), tickets priced P400 each. Film is subtitled. Running time of the film is 180 minutes with a PG rating. Visit www.sureseats.com for schedules and ticket reservations.
