Theatre For A New Audience To Present THE TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS

Theatre for a New Audience will present THE TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS by William Shakespeare, directed by Ash K. Tata, at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, TFANA’s home venue in Brooklyn.

Tata’s production places Shakespeare’s tragedy of political unrest in a moment described as “just after now,” exploring the effects of rapidly shifting political systems on early Republican Rome and the people living within them. The play centers on Coriolanus, a celebrated war hero whose disdain for popular rule places him at odds with the newly empowered citizens of Rome, raising questions about leadership, representation, and the mediation of violence.

The cast will be led by McKinley Belcher III as Coriolanus, Mickey Sumner as Aufidius—reimagined as a woman in this production—and Roslyn Ruff as Volumnia, Coriolanus’s mother. Their relationships form the emotional core of the political drama.

“One of the most exciting things about this cast is their hunger for working on Shakespeare’s language—to eat it and spit it back out as this embodied depiction of political action and violence,” said Tata. “It’s really exhilarating to build a company around that energy.”

Rather than offering clear heroes or villains, Tata’s staging highlights the instability and precarity of a society undergoing democratic experimentation. The production incorporates contemporary design elements that evoke modern warfare and mediated political realities, examining how violence and opinion are broadcast, filtered, and consumed.

“The first scene in THE TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS is an experiment in representative democracy—it’s the creation of this new political position of the tribunes, who are supposed to be the voice of the people,” said Tata. “Our production is asking: what does it mean for our political processes to also be mediated—whether by the news media or by AI that generates memes about what is fact and what is fiction?”

TFANA Artistic Director Arin Arbus said, “It’s an extraordinary play to tackle right now: a prosperous republic lurching from crisis to crisis, its politics fueled by ad hominem attacks and backroom deals. Elites and the working class are at each other’s throats; riots and political deadlock prevail; an affordability crisis festers at home and imperial adventures abroad.”

CAST

The cast will include McKinley Belcher III as Coriolanus, Mickey Sumner as Aufidius, Roslyn Ruff as Volumnia, Barzin Akhavan as Cominius, Kevin Alicea as Adrian, Jack Berenholtz as Nicanor, William DeMerritt as Sicinius Velutus, Meredith Garretson as Virgilia, Pomme Koch as Senator/Lieutenant/Aedile, Merlin McCormick as Young Martius, Jason O’Connell as Menenius Agrippa, Emma Ramos as Valeria, Zuzanna Szadkowski as Junius Brutus, and Sarin Monae West as Titus Lartius.

CREATIVE TEAM

The creative team will include Afsoon Pajoufar (scenic design), Avery Reed (costume design), Masha Tsimring (lighting design), Brandon Bulls (sound design), David T. Little (composer), Lisa Renkel and POSSIBLE (projection design), J. David Brimmer (fight choreography), Dan Safer (movement direction), Andrew Wade (voice direction), Sean Frank (properties supervision), and Jonathan Kalb (production dramaturgy). Charlie Lovejoy will serve as production stage manager.

PROGRAMMING AND CONTEXT

The production will be part of a transitional season for TFANA and will mark Tata’s Off-Broadway debut. Tata previously collaborated with TFANA on a streaming production of Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest during the early months of the pandemic.

As part of the programming surrounding the production, author and scholar James Shapiro will lead a seminar on THE TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS, examining its critical history and political resonance. Registration for the seminar has reached capacity.

TICKETING AND VENUE INFORMATION