Shakespeare's grim story about a victorious soldier's scathing contempt for the population he is sworn to protect features battles, betrayals and some heart-wrenching scenes of familial entreaty. When Coriolanus's main prop is a baguette, however, you know you're not exactly in for a night of lavish spectacle. The Chiten company from Kyoto have clearly not taken their lead from Akira Kurosawa's spare-no-expense samurai epics. Baguettes feature prominently, as do toy trumpets, kids' keyboards and a lot of cartoonish voices. This might be the only tongue-in-cheek Coriolanus you're ever likely to see.

Experimental theatremaker Motoi Miura's production is stripped down in another sense: he uses his talented, likable cast as a kind of abstract chorus of four, who play all the secondary roles. They prance, strike poses, mock Coriolanus in lambs' voices; Yohei Kobayashi does an imaginary galloping horse that would make Python proud. Their comic timing is sharp, and when they haul the ranting Coriolanus off stage at the end of the first half you can still hear his tantrums behind the scenes. Miura seems to be saying that the would-be politician who disdains having to "pander" to his public is acting like a child, and ought to be treated as such.

If so, it's a damning indictment of political arrogance that comes couched as absurdist theatre. The battles, such as they are, become stylised tableaux that, frankly, could be anything: lovers courting, geese fighting, a bunch of fat snowmen melting in the spring. There is no psychological realism here, and little trust in the essential drama: Dai Ishida as Coriolanus swings between angry and silly so often that it's hard to care what happens to him, though he gives a remarkably commanding performance considering he spends most of the first half with a basket over his head.

Two musicians occasionally punctuate the action with a glockenspiel or the comically forlorn bleat of a horn. But mostly you're watching people talking. Oddly enough, considering this production is in Japanese, Miura put his trust almost entirely in Shakespeare's language – something few western productions have the guts to do.

It's a touching faith that comes off as unfortunately naive in this spirited, open-air theatre, not least when a military helicopter decides to hover directly overhead and drown out all the voices for 10 minutes, like a metaphor for the plot itself. It doesn't help that the actors seem swallowed up by the big stage and make little use of the proximity of the groundlings beyond a strange, open-handed entreaty to the audience at the end. In a small black room with some atmospheric lighting, Miura's Coriolanus would have a sarcastic magnetism. On the first warm summer night London's had in months, it comes off as a tiny bit politically arrogant.

Contributor

Chris Michael

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Cymbeline – review
Shakespeare's most rambling romance becomes irresistible in the hands of the South Sudan Theatre Company, writes Matt Trueman

Matt Trueman

04, May, 2012 @4:11 PM

Article image
Twelfth Night – review
Company Theatre's Hindi version is strong on cartoonish comedy, but misses the beguiling, melancholy heart of the play, writes Lyn Gardner

Lyn Gardner

30, Apr, 2012 @11:33 AM

Article image
Antony and Cleopatra – review
Turkish speakers were treated to two of their most famous stars in this briskly traditional production from Istanbul's Oyun Atölyesi company – and Zerrin Tekindor's Cleopatra did not disappoint, writes Michael Billington

Michael Billington

28, May, 2012 @4:08 PM

Article image
A Midsummer Night's Dream – review
Mushy peas may not have featured in the original, but this entertaining, slapstick production from Korea was a joy, writes Brian Logan

Brian Logan

02, May, 2012 @2:38 PM

Article image
Macbeth – review
Kochanowki's Theatre's colourful Polish-language production features Gloria Gaynor and a pregnant Lady M – but it doesn't quite work, writes Michael Billington

Michael Billington

09, May, 2012 @3:43 PM

Article image
All's Well That Ends Well – review

Set in early 20th-century India, Mihir Bhuta's Gujarati adaptation works well as period drama, but misses some of Shakespeare's finer-grained subtleties, writes Andrew Dickson

Andrew Dickson

01, Jun, 2012 @9:14 AM

Article image
Julius Caesar – review
Andrea Baracco's adaptation is undermined by both a surfeit of silliness and the Caesar-sized hole at its heart, writes Melissa Denes

Melissa Denes

03, May, 2012 @4:09 PM

Article image
Titus Andronicus – review
Tang Shu-Wing Theatre Studio's Cantonese version brings the tragedy's manic energy to life but fails to capture its eloquence, writes Andrew Dickson

Andrew Dickson

10, May, 2012 @11:32 AM

Article image
Henry VIII – review
Madrid-based Rakatá's superb production reframed the story of Henry's abandonment of Catherine of Aragon through Spanish eyes, writes Laura Barnett

Laura Barnett

31, May, 2012 @11:12 AM

Article image
King John – review
Sundukyan Theatre's Armenian King John is an exuberant production overflowing with comedy, writes Theresa Malone

Theresa Malone

21, May, 2012 @3:39 PM