The National Theatre production of Coriolanus, starring David Oyelowo, will become available for streaming starting in January.
The production, which played London’s Olivier Theatre in a two-month run this past fall, will stream on National Theatre at Home’s subscription platform starting Jan. 2. This play, and making the production more accessible, especially given its political resonance, holds particular importance for Oyelowo, the Selma and Lawmen: Bass Reeves star who made his return to the stage in the title role.
“Not everyone can get to London, or everyone can afford those prices, and then quite a lot of people are just intimidated by Shakespeare, and so access to it in an environment that is maybe less intimidating, or means less of an effort to get to the theater in order to engage with a play that you’re already intimidated by, those are all things that I really embrace,” Oyelowo said.
The play, follows Coriolanus, who goes from Rome’s greatest soldier to running for political office. He can’t win the vote of the people, as he refuses to ingratiate himself to them, and is banished from the city, which causes him to plot his revenge.
Oyelowo suggested Coriolanus to Rufus Norris, the now outgoing artistic director of the National Theatre, about ten years ago, as he had been ruminating on the play since performing it in drama school. The Selma actor was also drawn to the unusual construction of the play, where it starts with battle scenes and then becomes political, then emotional, and the fact that it has not often been produced, unlike Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet, which he calls “overdone” in comparison to Shakespeare’s many other works.
“I just became incredibly fascinated by both the play, but specifically the main character, because he’s such a difficult character to pin down. Is he a hero? Is he an antihero? Is he someone the audience is going to get on board with, or someone they’re going to be repulsed by? Is he someone who is for Rome but anti-the people, or is he ultimately about the people and Rome by going against what the people say they want? I just found him truly human, but also heroic and iconic,” he said.
The play was initially meant to run in 2020, but that run was curtailed by the pandemic. Oyelowo and director Lyndsey Turner then looked to 2024, as they felt the play would have a particular political resonance with the time period.
“2024 was going to be this year where there was a general election in both the UK and the US. And considering how the play looks at the politics of personality over policy. This is man, who, his prowess on the battlefield is what thrusts him into the public eye and into the political sphere, but his prowess as a warrior is also the thing that makes him not an ideal candidate for the compromise that is almost expected when you’re a politician. And all of those themes, I think we’ve seen play out in the political sphere, both in the UK and America and around the world recently,” he said.
That resonance was most potent the day after the U.S. presidential election, Oyelowo said, when the audience would have audible reactions to lines such as “Revoke your ignorant election.” The play’s run ended Nov. 9.
Oyelowo, who has appeared in several Shakespeare stage productions, had input on the production, particularly around the casting, and the fact he, as a Black man, was playing Coriolanus, a lionized political figure, in 2024. While the trend in the theater industry has been toward colorblind casting, Oyelowo said he wanted to be mindful about the power and racial politics at play and cast his character’s nemesis, Aufidius, as another Black man and his mother as a Black woman.
In streaming the play, Oyelowo said he is excited about bringing Coriolanus to schoolchildren, who may not otherwise have access to the arts and to a more global audience. But he also notes the “double-edged sword” of the medium.
“It’s a double-edged sword, you know, because I think one of the amazing things about theater is the FOMO factor. If it’s a great production, if it’s got great word of mouth, if you don’t go, you’re going to miss it. I do wonder if some people who might go, don’t because they in the back of their mind know that they are going to get to at least potentially have access to it elsewhere,” Oyelowo said. “It’s a little bit like what has happened to the film industry. Streaming has come along and has made the theatrical experience feel less urgent, less like you’ve got to get there on that opening weekend, or you’ve got to get there so that you can talk about it with your friends, because the chances are now, within a matter of weeks, not even months, it’s going to be on your TV screen at home.”
“But having said that, I do know for a fact that thousands more people than otherwise would have been the case will see Coriolanus now because of NT at home,” he continued.
While Oyelowo will be balancing other film and television projects moving forward, including a first-look deal with Apple TV+, he plans to keep theater in his rotation, as it helps him reset and return to his love of acting.
“Shakespeare, for me, is the Everest for actors. Once you do it, you sort of feel invincible in almost everything else you do,” he said. “So I do love coming back to it, but practically speaking, as a father, as a husband, it is not something that I can do all the time.”
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