ANDY HEDGECOCK is entertained by a playful novel that embeds a fictional game at its heart
Latest editorial
Coriolanus, National Theatre at Home
Gritty account of the downfall of an uncompromising war lord
AT WAR WITH HIMSELF: Tom Hiddlestone as Coriolanus
[Johan Persson]
Death comes for Liberals, entitled murder, Vatican hit squads, and fraternising with the Blitz killer
New releases from Public Image Ltd, William Basinski, and John Luther Adams
GABRIELE NEHER draws attention to an astoundingly skilled Flemish painter who defied the notion that women cannot paint like men
The Bard pays homage to Hull’s finest promoter and venue, and awards Douze Points to Laibach
KEVIN DONNELLY outlines how the bourgeois institutions inhibit our ability to to view art in revolutionary ways, and suggests some tactics to overturn it
CORIOLANUS is possibly the most single-track and linear of all Shakespeare’s works.
With no subplots or deviation from its core theme, what seems like a predictable tale of military might and political power is, by the conclusion, a simple account of the complexities and inner workings of one man’s mind.
The fearless and commanding Caius Martius — Coriolanus — is a Roman military leader whose macho world of bloody battles and swaggering pride, synonymous almost with the modern world of car chases and shoot-outs, has earned his sobriquet in recognition of one such battle.
Similar stories
MARY CONWAY applauds the timely revival of Miller’s study of people fatally deformed by the economics of survival
MARY CONWAY is blown away by a flawless production of Lynn Nottage’s exquisite tragedy
MARY CONWAY revels in the Irish American language and dense melancholy of O’Neill’s last and little-known play
GORDON PARSONS joins a standing ovation for a brilliant production that fuses Shakespeare’s tragedy with Radiohead's music