A street in Rome.
- Mutinous citizens (1st, 2nd with lines)
- Menenius, friend to Coriolanus
- Coriolanus (still named Martius in the script)
- messenger
- Sicinius, tribune (PEOPLE)
- Brutus, tribune (PEOPLE)
- Cominius, general (ARMY-R)
- Lartius, general (ARMY-R)
- Senators (R)
Discuss.
The very opening gets off to a rousing start. The First Citizen is prime, I call dibs unless it works out otherwise, and his snarling hatred of Caius Martius sets us up to admire Martius, only Martius is a grade-A asshole.
I love his line, after Martius/Coriolanus makes his first entrance, “We have ever your good word.” [I.1.64]
The entire scene, though, calls for a fairly crowded stage: plebes, patricians, at least six major characters. We will have to recruit. Send likely victims to this page to start working.
I’ve only read up to where Menenius comes in. Onward.
First Citizen’s tirade at I.1.77 could have been written for the current administration.
If we are going to stage this in the park, I think it only appropriate to draft the citizenry to help play roles. We could hand them slips of paper as they enter with an assignment as to which category they fall into. Such slips could give them clues about how they might feel about other characters. This could provide historical reference for those that need it as well. If done right, it wouldn’t telegraph the plot, but provide enough that they would get the idea. We could also inform them that they don’t need to DO anything, only to FEEL what their role should FEEL. It would be interesting to see how such instructions played out in their reactions to the action of the play.
Menenius is a chatty old bastard, isn’t he? I keep seeing him in a seersucker suit, bowtie. Go back and read his “pretty tale” to the plebes in a Southern Senator voice. It totally works. He’s a wheeler-dealer, a deal-maker, backslapping politician.
The tribunes, Sicinius and Brutus, are pretty sleazy, although their assessment of Martius/Coriolanus is pretty accurate.
Might work to have the citizens enter the ring at the beginning with baseball bats and other cudgels and the like, ready to do damage. They have to be coaxed to accept the “conventions” of wrestling as they way to work through conflict. You want bread, you get circuses. The idea throughout is that different groups are trying to ignite the audience for support. So the First Citizen is as much speaking to the actual crowd as he is to his fellow citizens.