The Raw Aggression of 'CORIOLANA'

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Photo Credit: Nathaniel Schardin, Traveling Lemur Productions LLC.

Cooperative Performance’s bold high-energy adaptation of Shakespeare’s CORIOLANA is a spare production. A couple of towers are wheeled around to suggest different locations. Costuming is simple and pragmatic with opposing forces clearly identifiable by color. The visual simplicity allows the raw aggression and brutality of the production to appealingly guide the drama’s momentum.

Gabriella Ashlin is magnetic as the title character—a war hero who tumbles into a confining position of authority in Roman government. With great poise and flair, Ashlin wields a dominant emotional fire powered by the gravity of commanding aggression. It’s a brief and often angry journey for the central character. Ashlin grabs hold of the character’s strengths right away and doesn’t let go until it’s all over.

Molly Corkins holds a more reserved authority in the role of Coriolana’s mother Volumnia. Corkins summons the steady confidence of a carefully studied wisdom to the story. She resolutely glides across the stage in the matriarch’s dealings with her daughter and others. Her sparklingly assertive presence anchors the action of the production in a calm and steady space.

Anna Murray counters Corkins’ steadiness as Coriolana’s climactic antagonist Aufidia. Murray is swift with a clean economy of action. She’s smolderingly charming as the leader of an army that has been drawn against the Roman empire. Shakespeare doesn’t allow the character very much space to develop, but Murray does an impressive amount with what she’s given. Murray has a canniness about her that lends the character a power that conscientiously keeps a few shadowy steps away from overwhelming the rest of the story.

Through Oct. 21 at Alverno College’s Wehr Hall, 4100 W. Morgan Ave. For tickets, visit cooperativeperformance.org.