Richard II and Coriolanus





By Jim Harter
Jim's Reviews
American Shakespeare Project
Fall 2000



Review of The Almeida Company productions of Richard II & Coriolanus at BAM:




(Jonathan Kent, director)




Like hundreds of other Shakespeare lovers last fall, I made my pilgrimage to the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater to see Ralph Fiennes alternate the title roles in Richard II and Coriolanus, probably two of the most unsympathetic central characters in all of Shakespeare. Does this actor have guts or what? From night to night to alternate between two big unsympathetic roles, one an effete, ineffectual king who is deposed by the cousin he tried to cheat out of his inheritance and is eventually murdered; the other a Roman patrician who is destroyed because, although he deserves to be made Consul of Rome, he adamantly refuses to woo his constituents for their votes, is subsequently banished by them, joins forces with his former enemies to invade Rome and exact revenge, and is then betrayed, in turn, by a mother for whom he simply doesn't exist as a human being and is killed! Wow!


I thought Fiennes was better suited to play Richard and overall this was the more satisfactory production of the two. However, I suspect that Coriolanus was a far more challenging role for him, and it was certainly the"riskier" production of the two. I also thought the most powerful single image and the most electrifying moment in either play both occurred in Coriolanus. The image came in Act I during the battle in front of the enemy city when Marcius, in an attempt to rally his faltering army, rushed into the city alone. The city gates, represented by a huge industrial steel door, slammed down with a mighty crash, trapping him inside the city and forcing him to fight against overwhelming odds alone. As an expression of sheer theatricality, it was incredibly compelling. And when a few moments later he emerged, covered in blood, to say the battle was won, I was ready to declare him Consul of Rome myself. God knows he'd earned it! The"electrifying" moment (and you may never hear me use that word again!) came in Act III when he finally lost his temper and launched into the "You common cry of curs" speech, in which he irrevocably insults and alienates himself from the Roman populace and provides the excuse they need to banish him from Rome. It was as exciting and skilled a rendition of a Shakespearean monologue as I've ever heard, easily comparable to any world class tenor or baritone singing one of the great Verdi arias at the Met, overshadowing even the great arias (excuse me, speeches) he gave in Richard II, of which, "For God's sake let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings" was, for me, the most memorable, if for no other reason than that I felt genuinely sorry for the character at that point, a sympathy I didn't feel in any other section of the play. Even though Fiennes' delivery of the verse was superb throughout, and especially in the long, introspective speech, " I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world", I'm afraid I never again felt any real compassion for his Richard. I've read reviews that seem to imply that this was somehow a fault of the actor, but I'm not sure I agree. I think Fiennes gave a very brave performance of an unsympathetic character and didn't try to make him more attractive than he was. In short, it was an excellent performance and I look forward with anticipation to seeing his next Shakespearean incarnation, whatever and wherever it may be.

Despite being frequently as annoyed with the Roman populace during the first four acts of Coriolanus as he was, basically because the Tribunes and the mob they represented were so mindless, when they weren't being totally self-serving, the only moment of genuine human sympathy I felt for the character in the entire play was in Act V when his mother, Volumnia, convinces him to betray his new Volscian "friends" and spare Rome, a decision he knows will inevitably cost him his life. I suppose it was possible in previous decades and centuries to play Volumnia sympathetically (although I'm not sure HOW), but in our time it's hard to imagine a more truly horrible woman than she, and Barbara Jeffords gives a chilling performance. She's so incredibly manipulative that your heart goes out to the poor Patrician thug she created and will now destroy without a moment's hesitation because it serves her purpose, the deluded sap who can beat any army sent against him but can't stand up to his own mother, even if it costs him his integrity, his masculinity, and ultimately his life! And this cold performance is wonderfully contrasted with the genuinely funny scene she has as the Duchess of York in Richard II. A scene in which she staunchly defends her son in that play, a son without any redeeming value whatsoever, who is undoubtedly a traitor, condemned by his own father (superbly played in this scene by Oliver Ford Davies), yet is saved from the gallows by a mother who absolutely refuses to take "No" for an answer and browbeats the king until she finally gets her way. I thought there was a little too much "playing for laughs" in this production, especially in the deposition scene by Fiennes (which made it impossible to feel any pathos at all), and throughout both productions by Oliver Ford Davis. To be fair, another member of our group (the very talented Susan Baum) enjoyed Oliver Ford Davis performance in Richard II and felt that without his comic relief the play would have been far too ponderous. I found him annoying after a while, but admit that this scene was a comedic delight.

The best image in Richard II came at the very beginning when he was carried onstage in a chair, wearing a luxurious white and gold gown, to resolve a fractious dispute between his cousin, Bolingbroke, and another subject, Thomas Mowbray. Richard's problems all stemmed from the fact that he believed he was king by divine right and could therefore do no wrong, and as he enters the stage for the first time Fiennes communicates that attitude totally. His nose is lifted so high in the sky, it's as though he is trying to avoid breathing the same air as the people around him, as if that air would somehow contaminate him. It's a wonderful start to an excellent production, perfectly displaying the dizzying height from which he is about to fall.

Linus Roache, who played Bolingbroke and Aufidius, the antagonist in each play, was excellent in both roles with only one caveat, namely, that he was so vocally overpowered by Fiennes. However, since both his characters were more consummate politicians and not quite so overtly egotistical as those Fiennes played, this was not damaging to either production, but it was definitely noticeable.

I enjoyed David Burke's performance as John of Gaunt, especially the forthright manner in which played gave the "Royal throne of kings" speech. I truly believed these were the last noble sentiments of a grieving parent and dying patriot who foresees his country's ruin, and my appreciation was even greater in the subsequent scene in which Richard is probably at his most unattractive (and in which Fiennes was so good that I loathed him). Burke was also very solid as Cominius in Coriolanus. In fact, one thing was clearly evident in both of these productions, namely that, apart from Linus Roache and Emilia Fox (who gave sympathetic performances in the two small roles of the wives), the old guys in these productions were in all instances far better than the young ones. It's nice to see that training and experience do show!

The sets in both productions were simple and effective, with especially good use of the side doors and the catwalk in Coriolanus. The costumes in Richard were good, but I didn't like those in Coriolanus. If you're going to do a modern dress production, do it. Having actors wear suits and then put togas over them, quite frankly, looks silly. We know they're Romans -they tell us so incessantly - we don't have to be beaten over the head with it!





 

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