Into the darkness

Could there have been a more appropriate day to see Coriolanus?

I haven't read the play, I had never seen it before and I avoided synopses and reviews beforehand so I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. An insight into arrogance, power, populism, betrayal, pride, stubbornness, demagoguery, hubris, conflict and manipulation, that's what.

The first half set up the characters, their conflicts and their allegiances and was an opportunity for me to attune my ear to Shakespeare's language (and revel in the National Theatre set).

In the second half, the interplay of all those human failings exploded, with disastrous consequences.

I didn't realise until the very end, which left me winded, that the impressively versatile set enabled all the history, all the emotion, and all those human weaknesses to come crashing into the present.

I was there with Bundle and, in the context of today's frightening news from the US, we'd been talking beforehand about how, if we are to stand any chance at all of learning from history, its teaching has to include empathy, not just facts. And for me, that was how the play ended. Our past is our present and our future unless we can feel the pain and anguish of it and resolve, all of us, to do things differently.

I was surprised that the reviews, when I read them afterwards, were not as good as I felt the production deserved. I just wonder whether the goings on in the US since press night six weeks ago have honed the performances. And maybe today's appalling news also sharpened the actors and the audience.

Some fantastic acting. Huge credit to David Oyelowo as Coriolanus.

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Over half of US voters have chosen Trump. Into the darkness we go.