Coriolanus
Third row seats at bargain prices, and for once without any big people or heads in the way, so that got us off to a good start. As the play gets underway, when we first meet Coriolanus (David Oyelowo) he is smoothly mixing as part of the elite, glass in hand. After his huge success as a general winning in a war for Rome he seeks to become a political leader but finds that a whole different thing. He isn’t that keen on trying to appeal to the masses who he views with some contempt, and makes it clear that the games and nonsense required to gain popular support is beneath him. As a result, the Tribunes in the Senate who represent the plebs/masses don’t like him much and so successfully conspire to unseat him and get him banished. The wheeling and dealing that surrounds Coriolanus is tricksy, with different camps trying to get advantage. As a play about power and politics, it speaks well about the gap between the masses and the elite, populism, and the desire to retain po...