Theatre: Coriolanus (★★★½)

By William Shakespeare
Directed by Michael Jenn
Set designer Chris Brain
Performed by WAAPA 3rd Year acting students
Roundhouse Theatre, WAAPA
11-17 March, 2016

Here we are, in election season, when Australian politicians fix smiles and shout beers in workaday pubs, and American billionaires feed red meat to rednecks.
It’s the “demo” that comes with “cracy”, and political death awaits those who lack either the skill or stomach to pander to it. 
Coriolanus (Angus McLaren), had been bred for valour and honour by his formidable mother Volumnia (Anneliese Apps). For him, leadership was earned with swords not words. The soldier in him demanded submission, not popularity.
The scourge of Rome’s enemies is hardly less harsh on his own countrymen, and they are wary enough of his rise to power, even without his arrogance and contempt.
Fall and banishment, vengeance and death, are unavoidable for a character as fixedly self-absorbed as he is.
Michael Jenn’s production, with WAAPA’s 3rd Year Acting students, compacts the play without losing its structure or meaning.
It features a muscular, scornful performance by Angus McLaren as Coriolanus, but Jenns gives each of his charges their moment in the spotlight.

Read the complete review in The West Australian