Coriolanus

Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An exceedingly well-designed political play – with scenes echoing each other in powerfully ironic ways. Coriolanus is allergic to explaining himself, he is a public figure who must be interpreted by the other characters and the audience. Lee Bliss’s introduction in the New Cambridge edition captures how his inflexibility in the world of public affairs makes him so wrong-footed and easy to manipulate. The ambivalences in the text, and the multiple meanings that can be generated from the way the play is acted and staged, makes this a play worth re-watching and re-reading. I like the charismatic Richard II a bit better, but Coriolanus is up there with Shakespeare’s best portrayals of the grubby compromises involved in politics.

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