While Shakespeare no doubt drew on the ongoing struggle of his own time between King James and Parliament, which explains his emphasis on the patrician-plebeian conflict in Coriolanus, it has to be said that he was equally fair—or may one say—unfair to both sides. One is, therefore, glad that the current production of Coriolanus at the Stratford Festival refrains from claiming the play for either left or right, as has been done in the past. For the most part, this Coriolanus has been given a clear reading and interpretation that on the whole is most satisfying.

Director Antoni Cimolino, who is the heir apparent of retiring artistic director Richard Monette, chose well to place the title role in the care of Colm Feore. This actor not only is one of our best Shakespeareans at present, but he is able to project the conflicts that rage within the character role. He manages to make us believe that Coriolanus is very fierce in battle, seemingly without fear, that he is honorable, extremely proud, inflexible, disdainful of the plebeians, and surprisingly immature. The obstinate hero is, to put it gently, a mamma's boy.

It is his mother, Volumnia, who has high ambitions for her son and has raised him to be the fearless warrior, but failed to teach him how to be a politician. She even decides his final fate although the son knows that it spells his doom, and she may as well. Mother cannot be disobeyed. Martha Henry is both deeply moving and chilling in the role.

Rome is at war with one of its strongest enemies, the Vulsci, who are led by Tullus Aufidius. Graham Abbey has physically grown into the part, but he is not always convincing. Shakespeare's words do not flow easily off his tongue, thereby diminishing the impact of the furor and jealousy Aufidius feels that will bring about the climax of the tale. Coriolanus is Caius Martius's agnomen. He had been granted it for having defeated the Volscians at the city of Corioli in 493 BC — if Plutarch's story is to be believed. As Shakespeare tells it, the two generals met in several battles before, with Coriolanus the winner each time.

Nicola Correia-Damude, in her Stratford debut, plays Coriolanus's wife, Virgilia, with an impressively gentle touch. One only wished, while watching her and Henry in their mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship, director Cimolino had brought out more of the tension that should exist between the two women. This Virgilia is just a little too demure in Volumnia's presence, but otherwise plays the role well.

Stephen Russell is excellent as Cominius, another Roman general and also friend of Coriolanus. Bernard Hopkins and Don Carrier exude the priggish, scheming nature of Brutus and Sicinius, the two Tribunes who are determined to topple the haughty Coriolanus. They are so convincing in the manner of the devious rabble rousers one wants to kick them.

The closing scene is stunning in its effect. We feel the violence but are spared the gore that has often been attached to the scene. Just how it ends one does not tell. Suffice it that the technical team found a powerful solution.

One wonders, however, what was in the mind of designer Santo Loquasto when he created the costumes for this production. While one does not quarrel with him about the military interpretation. The uniforms are non-specific enough even if they borrow from the present as well as the past. One does question the clothing of the Roman and Vulscian nobles. This play takes place in pre-imperial Rome, when the only foreigners in that city were other peoples from Latium. Among the peoples living on the "boot" aside from the Romans were, among others, the Aurunci, Samnites and Hernici. Somehow the lushness of the materials, and the design of the male headgear created by Loquasto places the action in an ancient Middle Eastern place, far outside what we now call Italy. As for Brutus and Sicinius, they look more like some strange clerics. Am I missing something here?

[Coriolanus by Shakespeare at the Stratford Festival to September 23, 2006]