The Tragedy of Coriolanus

BRUTUS
The people are incensed against him.
 
SICINIUS
Stop,
Or all will fall in broil.
 
CORIOLANUS
Are these your herd?
Must these have voices…

Caius Martius may be one of Rome’s bravest warriors, but he mocks the people and they despise him. Martius makes no bones about his contempt for democratic processes and referendums. In the early days of the Roman Republic, just after the expulsion of the Tarquin kings, famine and poverty are rampant and a revolutionary spirit is in the air. The people’s anger is mainly directed at Martius. However, the threat of invasion by a Volscian army led by Martius’ mortal enemy, Tullus Aufidius, quickly puts an end to any notion of a citizens’ revolt. Martius goes out to do battle with Aufidius and returns a celebrated war hero. He is awarded the cognomen of 'Coriolanus' after having almost single-handedly captured the city of Corioli.
 
In this new German translation by playwright Andreas Marber, William Shakespeare’s tragedy is more than just a parable about seizing power and hanging on to it. In what may be the Bard’s most political drama, everyone’s fighting for their own interests: citizens, politicians – even the mothers of Rome would rather have their sons die on the battlefield than see their city destroyed. Shakespeare analyzes a society which pits the upper class against the lower, the rich against the poor – but he doesn’t take sides. Instead he explores these opposite worlds and the mechanisms of history: Where and when is history made? And, above all, who decides?