Theatre for a New Audience

Theater review by Billy McEntee “He’s losing it.” “PURE MELTDOWN.” “I love watching his ego collapse in 4K.” These could be social-media comments on a Senate hearing, and indeed they are—but in Ancient Rome, not the United States. The current production of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Coriolanus at Theatre for a New Audience is a blend of the contemporary and the classical. A columned pantheon and a live video feed both overlook the stage in Afsoon Pajoufar’s spare multilevel set, and McKinley Belcher III gives modern spins to the title character’s modes of masculinity: the cocky bro, the momma’s boy, the war hero who falls from grace. Shakespeare charts a clear rise and fall for his doomed protagonist, and Belcher surfs those waves exuberantly. The Tragedy of Coriolanus | Photograph: Courtesy Hollis King Coriolanus is not Shakespeare’s most compelling work, but this production’s standout actors, anchored by Belcher, could make you think otherwise. The plot includes war, politics and a civic uprising as the Roman general Coriolanus vanquishes the rival Volscians only to plead for their alliance when his arrogant refusal to display his battle wounds gets him banished from Rome. The ping-pong of allegiances threatens to get confusing, but director Ash K. Tata keeps the action clear and active, and projections by Lisa Renkel and Possible help define the locations. Other sequences are less clear; during battles, the video design sometimes becomes a muddled first-person...