Coriolanus Reviews Round-up – Starring David Oyelowo

"David Oyelowo is outstanding as a traumatised Roman general with an empathy problem in Lyndsey Turner’s astute production"

"... while Hamlet designer Es Devlin is back to conjure a slickly anachronistic mishmash of ancient and modern worlds – men battle with swords in rooms that look like a cross between the British Museum and a Grand Designs property – this is not a show that coasts on spectacle."

"Psychology is the thing, and jacked Hollywood star David Oyelowo is wonderful as Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus, the stacked Roman general who turns on Rome after its people reject him."

"... Oyelowo’s Coriolanus isn’t some conceited toff who loftily monologues his contempt for the little guy. There is something unusual about his coldness, his lack of empathy, his total inability to read the room when it comes to niceties."

"Coriolanus is, above all, a play about politics and the need to keep the people on your side no matter how cynically. But here it’s supercharged by an outstanding central performance that deftly walks the line between sympathetic and repellant."

"Blockbuster Shakespeare with David Oyelowo on formidable form"

"Lyndsey Turner’s production sounds a warning about the dangers of elitism, with contemporary debates about monuments and stolen treasures the backdrop of her confident production"

"It’s a bit of a risk to put a lesser-known Shakespeare play with a vaguely comical name in the National Theatre’s massive Olivier space. But you wouldn’t know it from the monumental confidence of Lyndsey Turner’s swaggering production, full of antique grandeur and up-to-the-minute fireworks."

"In slo-mo fight scenes with a cinematic polish we see Coriolanus, played by David Oyelowo, earn his reputation as a formidable warrior. The actor moves beautifully in flashes of strobe, the messiness of battle forgotten."

"A gilded replica of the Elgin Marbles appears behind Coriolanus when he eventually descends into full misanthropic fury, Oyelowo making brilliant, snarling work of a speech where he turns his back on the establishment that formed him."

"There aren’t many jokes in this sombre play, but Turner’s staging brings out all its ironic wit"

"... this is epic, blockbuster Shakespeare in the vein of the NT’s 2018 Antony and Cleopatra: exciting to watch, packed with powerful performances and memorable images. And beneath the bombast, there’s a reminder of the dangers of elitism even if – ironically – that message is delivered in stylishly opaque form."

"A scorching stage return from David Oyelowo"

"This tightly focused, ferocious staging feels hugely timely and is rich in texture and detail"

"David Oyelowo makes a scorching return to the UK stage in this tightly focused, ferocious staging of Shakespeare’s Roman play. Beneath its simplistic plot of a war hero’s political elevation and then rejection, his revenge and demise, Coriolanus is a nuanced exploration of the double-edged danger of populism. Lyndsey Turner’s production therefore feels hugely timely and is rich in texture and detail. But it simply wouldn’t work without Oyelowo’s relentless, driving conviction."

"Oyelowo has excellent support from a mellifluous Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Coriolanus’s rival-turned-ally Aufidius, and from the fierily emphatic Pamela Nomvete as his mother Volumnia."

"A wonderfully natural but charismatic performer, Oyelowo was the first black actor to play an English king in a major Shakespeare production, as Henry VI for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2001. Like many of his generation, he then found in America opportunities that were lacking here. There were tears in his eyes at the curtain call on opening night. And in mine too, almost."

"David Oyelowo is thrilling as Shakespeare’s most inscrutable anti-hero"

"Lyndsey Turner’s staging of this tricky tragedy ingeniously aligns it with a modern, ill-at-ease Britain – and it boasts a real star turn"

"... Lyndsey Turner’s vaulting revival, starring David Oyelowo, thrillingly aligns the play’s tricky contours with a modern, ill-at-ease Britain."

"Oyelowo is not seen enough on the British stage, rarely appearing since he lit up the RSC’S 2000 production of Shakespeare’s equally unforgiving Henry VI trilogy, to which he leant a mesmeric, limpid grace. His Coriolanus, both emotionally reserved and volatile, is simultaneously an out-of-touch member of that cultural aristocracy and a blood-lusty warrior who smashes his foes repeatedly over the head with his shield in the glossily telegenic Corioli battle scenes."

"More could be made of the relationship with his nemesis, Aufidius (a somewhat buttoned up Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), but other supporting roles are full of vigour: Peter Forbes’s paternalistic Menenius; Jordan Metcalfe’s weaselly tribune. And perhaps most potently of all, Conor McLeod’s perpetually up for it protestor, a rebel on steroids always looking for a cause."

"David Oyelowo gives a towering performance"

"A thrilling production reframes the tragic hero with a riveting modern twist"

"Coriolanus is the most flinty and unyielding of all Shakespeare’s eponymous heroes, meaning that his tragedy is less performed than most. Yet what Lyndsey Turner’s riveting modern-dress production so craftily does is make us consider characters’ previously fixed stances and attitudes afresh. Is there the slightest chance that Coriolanus (David Oyelowo) might be more sinned against than sinning?"

"Productions of this play are usually very certain about where right and wrong lies, but Turner thrillingly throws all that into doubt. She makes us interrogate the motives of the rabble-rousing tribunes Brutus and Sicinius, the people’s representatives, who are fiercely opposed to the patrician Coriolanus."

"Oyelowo, all but lost to theatre in recent years, gives a towering performance of coiled intensity, as well as notable verbal dexterity."

"While Rome teeters dangerously close to mob rule, a fatally flawed tragic hero of the old school falls, and we look on, aghast but fascinated by the inexorability of events."

"David Oyelowo shines as Shakespeare’s troubled warrior"

"Past and present blur in Lyndsey Turner’s stunning production"

"Of all the spaces in the National Theatre, the Olivier is the one that most proudly asserts drama’s democratic purpose. Inspired by ancient amphitheatres, it comes alive when plays charge that space with urgent political debate. That fact is front and central in Lyndsey Turner’s mighty production of Coriolanus, led by a terrific, deeply troubled David Oyelowo, which fuses past and present, public space and playing space, to brilliantly eloquent effect. Here is a play about democracy, war, power, populism, and about the endlessly destructive myth of the strong man, that unpeels from antiquity to offer a tarnished mirror to our times."

"It’s a staging keenly aware of the power of iconography. Es Devlin’s stunning set is framed by huge pillars, reminiscent of the theatre’s concrete architecture, that rise and fall to compose a series of sleek modern interiors"

"It’s a staging of mournful, monumental resonance. Some emotional detail fares less well, however."

"It ends brilliantly, though. We’re back in the museum, the dead Coriolanus now preserved as an ancient statue, his shield gleaming. As a small boy stops to admire him, the questions are left hanging: what was it all for? And what templates for life will he inherit?"

"A full-fat Roman epic delivered with a mighty wallop"

"With a few concessions to video technology, director Lyndsey Turner’s modern dress production lets the text speak for itself. Oyelowo brings movie star magnitude to Coriolanus, physically imposing and articulate even in his reluctance to make public speeches."

"David Oyelowo keeps you waiting and Es Devlin’s design is to die for"

"The drama is underpowered until the end but what Lyndsey Turner’s production lacks in feeling it makes up in style"

"Under the direction of Lyndsey Turner, this evocation of Rome, divided by wealth, heritage and war, bears immediate resonances with the present, with its gulf between the angry masses and the city’s impervious elite class."

"What is less effective is the force of the drama itself, which is woodenly underpowered and never evokes quite enough feeling. Oyelowo seems mild-mannered and a little anodyne early on in his performance, while characters around him deliver their lines efficiently rather than infusing them with life."

"The key relationship between Coriolanus and his mother, Volumnia (Pamela Nomvete), feels distant and approximate. You never feel the son’s visceral need to please, although there is certainly the mother’s commanding love"

"If there is not enough emotional tension in the drama as a whole, there is plenty of action-film energy to the fight scenes between Aufidius and Coriolanus (slow-mo punches and karate kicks), while the battlefield is well-evoked with light (by Tim Lutkin), sound (by Tom Gibbons) and projections. The production is, in the end, a triumph of stagecraft."

"Intelligent, but lacks excitement”"

"David Oyelowo delivers an engaging central performance in a take on Shakespeare’s Roman tragedy that lacks firepower"

"Traditionally a drama electric with blood and thunder, Shakespeare’s Roman tragedy is an altogether cooler and more considered affair in this production by Lyndsey Turner."

"Oyelowo’s is an immensely watchable central performance and Turner’s take on the play is intelligent, but it sacrifices some of the excitement; without the pulse-quickening sense of Coriolanus’ hair-trigger temperament, the confrontations lack explosive energy."

"It’s all very clean, very elegant. What’s missing is the firepower – the clash of personalities and circumstances, the messy humanity, that might shock this measured political parable into life."

"The new production at the National Theatre features a thrilling central performance by David Oyelowo, now best known as a movie star for films such as Selma."

"Individual performances make their mark. Peter Forbes is convincing, as the silken Menenius, master of all the political arts that Coriolanus despises; Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is imposing as his arch-rival and later ally Aufidius. Yet it’s a slick production rather than an involving one. Its hard exterior seems to prevent engagement, offering a brilliant simulacrum rather than digging beneath the surface to the feelings beneath."

"David Oyelowo’s Coriolanus is dwarfed by epic staging"

"Space-gobbling and smouldering, Lyndsey Turner’s production of Coriolanus strides across the stage as a war monster. Es Devlin’s massive design, with all-over videos by Ash J Woodward, reflects the essence of Shakespeare’s most elusive hero: a warrior as impressive as he is opaque."

"David Oyelowo is forceful but uninflected; as unvarying as a bullet. Turner’s production is monumental rather than fully articulated or driving. Only Peter Forbes’s outstanding Menenius – who marvellously describes himself as more at ease with “the buttock of the night than the forehead of the morning” – really uses the suppleness of the verse."

"The set pieces are tremendous but they lack an internal central motor."

"How to play a sociopath"

"David Oyelowo is the latest star drawn to the Roman action man. Can he match his predecessors?"

"I really quite enjoyed David Oyelowo’s belated return to Shakespeare, 24 years after he broke through as Henry VI for the RSC. In fact, there are no false notes in this south Londoner turned Hollywood star’s first stage role since playing Othello to Daniel Craig’s Iago in New York in 2016. Yet if “really quite enjoyed” sounds like a suspiciously patrician response to a keenly awaited comeback and one of Shakespeare’s most muscular tragedies, well, yes, the pleasure of the evening is real, but so is its politeness. It’s ingenious, diverting and tension-free."

"It’s strikingly handsome, as Devlin’s work tends to be. It also overpowers thing"

"... by making this tragic hero all stand-up guy, no lethal-weapon headcase, Turner and Oyelowo take away the frisson where the mob might have at least part of a point about him. I wasn’t ever bored. But did I find myself sucked into the devastating inevitability of the finale? No, I found myself thinking: “Oh dear, that’s a pity.”"

"David Oyelowo could not save this curiously flat production"

"Can David Oyelowo, who brought the apostle of peace, Martin Luther King, to the big screen, match that steely level of testosterone? Sadly, no. Part of the problem with Lyndsey Turner’s curiously flat production is that you spend a lot more time casting an eye over the levitating grey slabs of Es Devlin’s characteristically chic set design"

"... the news bulletin-style video interludes that punctuate the action earlier look distinctly hackneyed."

"Among the ensemble, shouting often takes the place of poetry. Nor is there much sense of intimacy between the hero and his domineering mother, Volumnia, played by Pamela Nomvete."

"Real flames flicker all around the stage at one point. What a pity there’s no fire at the heart of this offering."