Globe fails to deliver on ‘pop’ Coriolanus

CORIOLANUS
Globe Theatre


CORIOLANUS is Shakespeare’s most overtly political play. To see it performed in what I can only describe as Britain’s most overtly apolitical theatre is devastatingly disappointing.
It is hardly surprising. The Globe – a monument to olde England with its barrels, trumpeters and stewards dressed in Hessian sacks – is little more than a tourist trap. It is a place where destructive stuffy Shakespeare stereotypes are confirmed and sixth-formers are put off for life.
In this calamitous production, women prattle, men in tights shout and hurrah and plebeians speak like oiks. The irascible Coriolanus, played here by Jonathan Cake, looked more like a lily-livered pin-up from Pop Idol. His fight scenes with Aufidius would have been more at home in a school playground. Sparks flew, but there was not a glint of fear in their eyes as they pratted about to poor choreography.
Distracted as I was by the rustle and chatter of the crowd, the snapping of cameras and the vibrating of mobile phones I tried my best to concentrate on the lines.
I am a Shakespeare fanatic and I find that however bad a performance or production is at least you have the lines to fall back on.
But these were barely audible beneath the babbling crowd and the Tribune’s great declaration, “What is the City but the people?” was lost to an incoming text message, I sank back in my uncomfortable wooden seat and wondered if I would ever return.
Until August 13
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