A full-throttle war play that revels in the sweat of the battlefield, Coriolanus transports us back to the emergence of the republic of Rome.

Caius Martius Coriolanus is a fearless soldier but a reluctant leader. His ambitious mother attempts to carve him a path to political power, but he struggles to change his nature and do what is required to achieve greatness. In this new city state struggling to find its feet, where the gap between rich and poor is widening every day, Coriolanus must decide who he really is and where his allegiances lie.

Rome Season Director, Angus Jackson, completes the Royal Shakespeare Company’s collection of Shakespeare’s Roman plays with a visceral production which sees Sope Dirisu (One Night in Miami, Donmar Warehouse, 2016) take on the title role.

★★★★” If ever there were a demonstration of how serene glory is often founded on the grubbiest of human actions, this was it. Dirty, unseemly and horribly protracted. An image which underlines the real cost of power politics in Rome and so many societies since” Stratford Observer

★★★★”Shakespeare’s Rome is in anarchy with the final production in the RSC’s Rome Season Saga being staged this September in Stratford. Although not one of his most popular and most performed plays, CORIOLANUS seems to be striking with audiences and placing people at the heart of its presentation…Terry King’s fight direction here is brutal with audiences receiving full blooded sequences making this one of Shakespeare’s more brutal and gritty plays and King should have total credit for the strength of these scene” Andrew Exeter

“Sope Dirisu, who memorably played Cassius Clay in the Donmar’s One Night in Miami, brings to Coriolanus a strong presence and martial vigour…” The Guardian