Shakespeare Magazine 9

Coriolanus
“Actors remained
on stage even when
their characters
were not in the
scenes. The sparse
set and costume
design maintained
a brutal simplicity”
Henry V in The
Hollow Crown TV
series easily fitted
his intense youthful
demeanor, but Coriolanus
seemed a bit of a stretch.
Indeed, most of his film experience has
been playing the soft-voiced villain (such as
Loki in Marvel blockbusters Thor and The
Avengers) or the smooth-faced gentleman
(for example, Sir Thomas Sharpe in the
recent Crimson Peak).
But director Josie Rourke knew what
she was doing. As is the case for so many
Shakespeare characters, Coriolanus is a
constant contradiction and Hiddleston
embodied the extremes in his performance,
contrasting his gentle appearance and voice
with the harsh and bloody events of the play.
Coriolanus’ downfall is both his
hardheaded pride and his compassion for
his mother, Volumnia (Deborah Findlay).
Because Hiddleston captured both aspects,
the play truly felt tragic.
His moments of intimacy with Virgilia
(Birgitte Hjort Sørensen) and Volumnia read
as sincere as his roaring against the tribunes
Coriolanus and
Fraser).
and plebeians. Hiddleston’s Coriolanus was
adorably amusing as he solicited for voices
from the fickle citizens, while also being
viciously terrifying in his delivery of “I
banish you!”
The intimacy of the Donmar space
translated smoothly to the cinema screen for
those of us watching around the world. But
it was unapologetically a piece of theatre.
The actors remained on stage even when
their characters were not in the scenes, and
SHAKESPEARE magazine 11