Shakespeare’s Coriolanus is still relevant to a contemporary audience

(I had started writing an essay in which wasn't part of the final coursework needed for this unit but thought i was post it as it talks about some interesting factors of the play.)

In this essay I am going to discuss how our performance of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus is relevant to a contemporary audience.

Throughout Coriolanus you see three contrasting political groups journey through a struggle for power and survival, The Romans, The Volchsians and The Rebels. Each group have fought to gain their power and place in a broken, post apocalyptic world and each want the chance to overrule Coriolanus. This is the story line of our version of Coriolanus at it's simplest and yet you can see already that there are common themes in which a contemporary audience would be able to relate to or understand on a general level.

A contemporary audience would be aware and often educated about moments in history such as World war 1, World war 2, the ongoing conflict is Gaza, the cold war etc. This knowledge would help a contemporary audience begin to understand the themes of Coriolanus such as loyalty, friendship, group mentality and hierarchy as they have seen from history how power and greed can lead to conflict or the basic ins and outs of how a war is played out and the aftermath. The idea that Coriolanus highlights the brutality of war makes the play still relevant today as contention is an ongoing problem in society and shouldn’t be forgotten.

Not only would a contemporary audience be able to link Coriolanus to famous moments in the past but would also be able to link themes to the present. Every audience member at some point in their lives may have struggled with conflict, found friendship, experienced or seen the effect of a group like mentality. In fact all audience members are surviving on a daily in the world we live in today. So the themes in this play still very much relate to a contemporary audience, they are just magnified to a larger, global scale.

For example, if you look at Coriolanus and his mother Volumnia in the play you can see a disjointed, difunctional relationship where Volumnia manipulates the Coriolanus brothers and is extremely proud of the people which they have killed. Some may believe this situation is entirely un relate able for the audience, as it is unlikely that anyone would have been forced to kill by their mother however, you can see small similarity's in which an audience member may be able to relate to, like a friendship where you have felt over powered or a situation where you have been made do something without your willingness or control. These are the underlying feelings in which an audience member could understand which leads them to emphasise with the characters. The problems and themes I have been discussing are ongoing and will always exist within the world as we are human and it is in human nature to experience struggle or sin, the fact that these problems are on going means the plays relevance is on going because Coriolanus speaks about universal issues.

In addition to this, overall our production of Coriolanus is contemporary as we have used various forms of multi media such as, video projection, lighting and sound effects this creates a sense of modernity. The 21^st century audience live in a technological age and therefor will be able to identify with the world and setting better if they see things in which are normal to them. Perhaps If we were to have set our play in ancient Rome and made the decision to use no sound effects, projections and minimal lighting the audience may feel even more detached from their normal world and therefor may have been less able to relate to the play.

Henry V Comments

• I believe most cast members brought something unique to their character which was nice for me as i could dip in and out of sections of people and see their different personalities come through like Sophie's curiosity and love of men or Olivia's power hungry jealousy of the french King. because this play had an all female cast, it would have been very easy to loose your sense of character, it would have been easy for the girls to all play a similar version of each other however this didn't happen and it was nice to see characters shine through.
• The overal image of this play was the most beautiful i think out of the three, stylistically you could see powerful images throughout that was visually pleasing and created a bold, chronological,clock work type format which i believe worked with the context of the play as each king was almost working in clock work with what their next move is and how they were going to win the war. However one thing i would say is that although visually i was taken back, i didn't feel like the images were real, i wasn't brought into the world of these characters and what the women were going through because a lot of the time the images were still. I felt i was hungry for something when watching and i think it was lacking in a truthful l grounded performance from a lot of the women in the factory, i didn't feel connected to their circumstances or  of the fear of war. It was a pretty picture that almost hid the brutality and pain that you faced these women.

Comedy of Errors Comments

• Each actor fully committed themselves to their role. Sometimes i find personally as an actor i find it hard to expose and embaress yourself in front of an audience so i have huge respect for all the cast in this play who openly allowed themselves to be out there and not take themselves so seriously.
• One thing that i believe could have been improved was the transitions. Throughout the play three drag characters would do a dance routine to music which changed the set or lead to a new scene. At first i found it interesting and humours to watch however because this kept being repeated in every transition i felt the humour was lost and it began to look like they were trying to just cover up the moving of the set with music and dance. I would of suggested having just 2 or 3 main dance routines throughout the piece as a transition where all cast members come on stage and reveal something more about there character wether it being the way they dance, the way they walk and talk, the way they interact with others etc. And also using different genres of music and different characters for each genre would have also kept an interest and excitement in scene changes and it would be constantly realign something more about that character.
• I partiality thought that Billy's performance stood out throughout the whole play. You could see that he had spend time and effort thinking about all the details of his character, for example the way he walked and talked, the way he spoke and moved his mouth were all cleverly thought about which made me want to watch him and invest in his character. One movement which i liked was he often would move his feet inwards and shuffle around like a small child would if they were irritated or needed the toilet, i liked this because it created and air of innocence which drew the audience to be in favour of him. I also think Jack did a really good job of playing the same character in his own way. He didn't just copy Bill and Bill didn't copy Jack they each brought something different, Jack was more gentle and quite and Bill was feistier.

Run notes

Be loud especially when there in movement on the stage like moving blocks or running steps. Listen to the sounds in the space and the audiences reaction. Feed off the cast and audiences energy.

It is a challenged when dresses all the same. This is a difficulty in our play, you have to establish who you are and stand out amount the crowd if you at higher status.

Your emotion is coming from your stomach. It is rooted from within.

Tomora's Bag

Tech rehearsal

In the tech run I am learning to stay concentrated and focused sending all my energy to the show. 

It's exiting seeing everyone in costume and seeing the set in actual size. It creates an automatic atmosphere for me personally. When you are faced with the size of the space you realise the scale of the performance. I have learnt how to use my voice correctly, projecting, in a larger space. 

As soon as you loose the lines the energy drops and it's hard to get it up again. Be on top of the lines.

I've learnt that it is so important to know the entrences and exits, being in the right place at the right time to make sure your keeping the pace of the piece going. 

Placing on stage is extremely important to the definition of the scene. For example the opening scene the blocks have to be placed in the centre of the stage as it visually is the focal point. 

Three tips

•learn lines inside and out and say with energy and meaning 

•know your entrences and exits, be in the right place at the right time 

•wrote down notes for blocking, movement of blocks and queue  lines 

Look over responsibilitys, queue lines, movement entrences . Play the energy throughout the transitions. Play the given circumstances, never drop the world you are in and the fight. Don't talk or relax backstage spend time quietly focusing. Invest in the preset. Live in the world.

Work the words, speak them like you have never heard them before.

Personal Notes

Second Zig zag make noise

Make you the sword of us needs to be more powerful

When swapping arm bands, wear nothing then change into red only and wear that for the rest of the time.

Take off balaclava after holding knife up to Coriolanus.

Scenes we need to look over:

Shefron change 

Act 3 scene 6

At 3 scene 8 

Dans fight

Kunfoo jig 

Riot scene 

Notes

From this week in particular and throughout this process so far I have become more fluid on stage and have learnt to constantly move in the scene and give an energy out to everyone in the scene. 

Having this freedom on stage is really helping me just live on stage rather than think to much about what I'm doing, it has made me feel comfortable and safe to just feel rather than think. 

Tell the story from the very begining. Understand the world and bring that on stage from the outset.  In the pre set we need to be slower, just to allow more room. 

The fights need to be slicker, stick to your routine that has been ceorographed.

Do things as a group shouting, interacting and feel the energy. Don't be afraid to make decisions that others aren't.