Pete Hempstead

Blame my ever-diminishing attention span, but I quickly lost interest in Tata’s techno-extratextual commentary on Coriolanus, now running at Theater for a New Audience’s home, the Polonsky Shakespeare Center. I get it, to an extent: it’s impossible to divorce our consumption of politics and civil unrest from the technology we’ve plugged into our brains. But with performances as strong as the ones we get from this cast, I would have welcomed the chance to unplug.

Strong performances across the board give this production heft. Ranson is utterly convincing as a seemingly poised student who nevertheless is triggered when her Irish bona fides are called into question. Marconi and Tipping make a comedic pair as they try to score at the bar with all the grace of toddlers at a petting zoo. Samantha Mathis has us hanging on every word as the mysterious Sonia, who may have the answers Dave is searching for. And Hayden dominates the stage as we watch Dave wrestle with memories, trauma, and a secret guilt that has driven his need for revenge.