Tennessee Shakespeare Company founder and producing artistic director Dan McCleary will lead the company of actors in the title role in Coriolanus. As well, viewers will be taken into the cesspool of politics of 493-489 B.C.E. It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same.
This political powerhouse has been appreciated by both political leaders and progressive theater companies in the last two centuries for national propaganda and citizen protest mobilization.
Courtesy of Tennessee Shakespeare Company
Coriolanus
“For a story that was ancient and well-known, the play’s ending was and remains surprising and moving,” says McCleary. “It is a harsh, bloody, painful look at a young republic struggling with its checks and balances through the austere nurture of male Roman virtue. This leads to a personal sacrifice that we do well to remember during our own election season. We all must be Tribunes of the people right now. We all must vote.”
A fatherless Martius is raised as a killing machine being of the patrician class. Martius cannot help but speak of his disdain for the office and the plebeian class; and with his potent threats and opposition in the Senate, he is banished from Rome only to join his archenemy in laying vengeful siege to his home and his family. But when the women and children of Martius’ family are deployed in supplication to him, what happens next is knowingly mortal.
The salon will feature approximately 10 scenes extracted from the play, interspersed with conversation about their creation and relevance, both live and online.
Like to a Lonely Dragon: Shakespeare’s Election of Coriolanus, Tennessee Shakespeare Company, 7950 Trinity, tnshakespeare.org, Friday, live and live-streamed, October 9, 8 p.m., $15-$25.
