Coriolanus

If only we could give two ratings: one for the script and one for the execution. This production of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Coriolanus (adapted by Laura Kaya) at Big Idea Theatre would get a 3 for script and a 5 for execution. Instead, it gets a 4, because both script and execution are part of the whole package.

There’s no faulting director Scott Divine’s stage savvy nor his cast’s impeccable timing and energy. Led by the charismatic Joshua Glenn Robertson as hot-headed mama’s boy Caius Marcias Coriolanus, the actors include Marion Jeffrey (rock-solid as mama Volumnia), Derek Byrne as foe-then-friend-then-foe-again Tullus Aufidius and cunning tribunes Jamie Kale and Rob Williamson as Sicinius and Brutus, respectively.

Based largely on “Life of Coriolanus” in Plutarch’s book The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Shakespeare added the fictional characters of the mother and wife, Virgilia, barely written at all (but played admirably by understudy Kaley Saari at the performance reviewed here, subbing for Maya-Nika Bewley).

Adaptor Kaya places the action in a fictional Slavic state plagued by political and social turmoil, regime changes and shifting borders. But those borders would have to shift a lot—like across the Adriatic Sea—to get to Rome, which is referenced as the prize. The play appears to be set in relatively modern times. There’s some automatic gunfire going on, but the set (designed by Cameron Rose) is a perfectly timeless suggestion of an ancient civic square.