{"id":242914,"date":"2009-09-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-18T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/a-precious-two-coriolanus-performances-remain\/"},"modified":"2009-09-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-18T07:00:00","slug":"a-precious-two-coriolanus-performances-remain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/a-precious-two-coriolanus-performances-remain\/","title":{"rendered":"A precious two \u2018Coriolanus\u2019 performances remain"},"content":{"rendered":"

A precious two \u2018Coriolanus\u2019 performances remain<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Por Charlene Baldridge<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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San Diego theatergoers have a rare opportunity to see a seldom-performed Shakespeare tragedy during this summer\u2019s Old Globe Shakespeare Festival. Written in 1608, \u201cCoriolanus\u201d has not been seen hereabouts since 1988. Now the opportunities have dwindled to a precious two, Wednesday, Sept. 23 and Friday, Sept. 25. <\/span><\/p>\n

The late Canadian-Hungarian director John Hirsch\u2019s renowned 1988 Old Globe production, set in modern times and surrounded with live television images of the performance, received national press and was much copied worldwide. It was Hirsch\u2019s first and last directorial assignment at the Old Globe. He died the following year of AIDS.<\/span><\/p>\n

Playing in the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, this season\u2019s \u201cCoriolanus\u201d is the parting assignment of Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak, whose staging of Shakespeare and others began with an astonishing outdoor production of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cPericles P<\/span>rince of Tyre\u201d (2003<\/span>) established the young Yugoslavia-born director at the Old Globe. Tresnjak, who recently announced his departure effective September 1, also directed this season\u2019s production of Edmond Rostand\u2019s \u201cCyrano de Bergerac.\u201d His leaving is a great loss for the Old Globe and the city.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is all the more reason to see \u201cCoriolanus\u201d before it, too, becomes ephemera. According to Tresnjak, Shakespeare didn\u2019t create perfect characters because they don\u2019t make for good drama or conflict. For his imperfect Coriolanus, he chose Greg Derelian, a classically trained New York-based actor with whom he\u2019s worked in the past. A major hunk, Derelian has acting power as well in the role of a Roman soldier urged by Volumnia, his mother (Celeste Ciulla in one of Shakespeare\u2019s most indelible female roles) to enter politics by becoming a tribune. Coriolanus, victorious in battle, has few people skills. He barely disguises disdain for the populace, and certain tribunes (Grant Goodman and James Newcomb) fearful of his power and popularity make it their objective to bring him down. Eventually, Coriolanus is declared a traitor and sentenced to death, so he flees to the enemy camp of Tullus Aufidius, whom he once defeated in hand-to-hand combat and subsequently spared. The two conspire to attack Rome together and seem to share a deep bond of camaraderie. When Coriolanus is persuaded to broker peace between the Volscians and Rome, Aufidius slays him, and what was to have been Coriolanus\u2019 triumphant return as peacemaker becomes his funeral.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tresnjak stages this difficult work with the genius for spectacle that is so emblematic of his work. The final scene sears itself into one\u2019s theatrical memory as do the performances of Derelian, Ciulla and Old Globe Associate Artist Charles Janascz as Coriolanus\u2019 trusted advisor, Menenius. As for spectacle, Ralph Funicello creates a spare set with design elements suggestive of Rome during the rise of fascism; Anna R. Oliver\u2019s costumes, military and civilian, are splendid; and Christopher R. Walker\u2019s music is subtle and alarming. Lighting is by York Kennedy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCoriolanus\u201d completes its Shakespeare Festival engagement with the performances noted above, playing in rotating repertory with \u201cCyrano\u201d (closing the festival September 27) and Shakespeare\u2019s comedy \u201cTwelfth Night\u201d (closing the festival September 26). Curtain is 8 p.m. at the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, Old Globe, Balboa Park.<\/span><\/p>\n

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For details go to <\/span>www.theoldglobe.org\/calendar\/index.aspx. For tickets, <\/span>visit <\/span>www.theoldglobe.com<\/span><\/span><\/span> or phone (619) 23-globe<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A precious two \u2018Coriolanus\u2019 performances remain By Charlene Baldridge San Diego theatergoers have a rare opportunity to see a seldom-performed Shakespeare tragedy during this summer\u2019s Old Globe Shakespeare Festival. Written in 1608, \u201cCoriolanus\u201d has not been seen hereabouts since 1988. Now the opportunities have dwindled to a precious two, Wednesday, Sept. 23 and Friday, Sept. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":242913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"A precious two \u2018Coriolanus\u2019 performances remain","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11593,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-no-images","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}