Coriolanus is one of Shakespeare’s least performed plays; perhaps because the hero is so pugnacious and classist, impressive in his strident vehemence, but lacking the vulnerability of a Macbeth or Othello.
Set in the turbulent early Roman Republic (490s BC) – about 450 years before Caesar’s death – the play follows the glorious rise of Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus, a terrifying war machine on the battlefield who could carve his way through enemy regiments.
