Fiennes Shines




Coriolanus
Gainsborough Studios
London


By Michael Billington
Guardian
June 16, 2000



Ralph Fiennes has already given us a volatile Richard II; he now offers, in Jonathan Kent's Almeida Theatre production, an even finer Coriolanus. And he reminds us of the curious similarities between the two men: both are brooding solitaries who think they are potential gods, prove fallibly mortal and ultimately die ignobly.

The key to Fiennes's performance lies in the delusion that soldierly valour transcends social obligation. In the heat of battle, he lingers lovingly on the phrase, "O' me alone, make you a sword of me". And at the last, when taunted by Aufidius, he harks back to his military exploits crying, "Alone I did it". This Coriolanus is a lonely dragon whose only real relationship is with his martial mother and who, outside the adrenaline-buzz of battle, has but a partial existence.

Fiennes is especially good at conveying ironic contempt for the people, mocking the accents of citizens and tribunes and exhibiting a flinty hauteur. It is a performance that neither begs nor solicits our sympathy: what it does is exhibit the psychological flaws of an arrested boy who craves maternal approval and who cries to Volumnia "chide me not" in sulky adolescent tones. It confirms Fiennes's status as one of our premier classical actors.

He also, unlike some of his colleagues, has mastered the tricky acoustic of the space: the only flaw in Kent's production is that some of the lines are rendered inaudible through shouting. Otherwise, it is excitingly staged with Paul Brown's set dominated by a rusty iron wall that descends with a thunderous clang and with the citizens established as a semi-permanent presence seated at an upstage table as if in permanent conclave.

There are some strong surrounding performances. Barbara Jefford is an outstanding Volumnia who turns her final plea to Coriolanus into an incrementally forceful argument that ends in physical attack. Linus Roache's Aufidius subtly hints at a homo-erotic fixation with the hero and seems most dangerous in his stillness. And Oliver Ford Davies's Menenius is not just a patrician apologist but a man whose thoughts are dominated by a fleshly delight in food and drink. But the excitement lies in seeing a well laid-out production of a great political play with an unequivocal star performance.


In rep until August 5. Box office: 020-7359 4404.








 

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