On the 30th January 2014 Sarah
and I went once again to the Vue cinema in Hartlepool to see Coriolanus
featuring Mark Gatiss and Tom Hiddleston. The production was set in the Donmar
Warehouse which originally was built as a Hops Warehouse, in the 1920s it was
used as a Film Studio before it was then bought by Donald Albery, who was a
Theatre Producer, who formed Donmar Productions in 1959, in 1961. The Royal
Shakespeare Company bought it in 1977 from Albery’s son Ian Albery who had
transformed it into a private recording studio. When the Royal Shakespeare
Company bought the Warehouse they renamed it ‘The Warehouse’ and it became the
theatre we know today. However it wasn’t until the 1990s that it finally became
known as ‘The Donmar Warehouse’ and this was because of the efforts of Roger
Wingate.
The Donmar Warehouse is one of
the most known theatres in London even though it has limited seating of up to
250 seats. However because of it limited and intimate seating the Donmar shows
normally sell out almost immediately especially when most of the productions
they produce are top of the line with well know actors/actresses taking a role
in them. In December – February 2013 the Donmar Warehouse is producing a
production of Coriolanus which has many big names taken part such as Mark
Gatiss, who has been in the BBCs adaptation of Sherlock though he is more
well-known for his role as a writer for Doctor Who, also Tom Hiddleston is to
star as the main character, known for his role as Loki from Thor and The
Avengers as well as The Hollow Crown in which he plays Henry V/Prince Hal.
The set they used was very
minimalistic and stripped to the bone with the top half of the back wall
painted white while the bottom was painted red, the set designer researched in
to early roman buildings as this was when the play was set the only other
feature to the actual set was a ladder that was placed near the back wall but
was still a potent feature. While the designers wanted to keep the element of
the Early Roman society they also wanted to make it modern which came through
with the ladder which they developed from looking into freedom speech images
the modernism also came through in the costume side of the production as well,
as the top half of the male costumes especially the soldiers had their armour
chest plate while the bottom half of the costume was just plain skin tight
Jeans.
Overall I found that the whole
production was beautiful and amazing for such a minimalistic set with just a
couple of chairs for props.
http://ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/ntlout5-coriolanus
