Seattle Shakespeare Company Presents Coriolanus, 1/4-29

The citizenry are revolting and political power is concentrated in the hands of the rich and powerful. Shakespeare points up the parallels to current headlines and shows that politics are a nest of vipers more dangerous than an enemy's sword in Seattle Shakespeare Company's production of Coriolanus. Director David Quicksall stages a lean, action-packed adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy about a warrior without equal who discovers he is nothing without his sword.

Tickets to Coriolanus are available now through the Seattle Shakespeare Company Box Office at 206-733-8222 as well as online at www.seattleshakespeare.org.

"What attracted me to this play was the central relationship between Coriolanus and his mother Volumnia," says director David Quicksall. "Out of all the familial relationships in Shakespeare's plays, this particular one is explored psychologically in way that Shakespeare doesn't do in any other play. She has raised a god of war, and wants the world to know it, but the tragedy is that he is so overwhelmed by her that he will do whatever she says and it ultimately leads to his downfall."

Bred for the battlefield, the triumphant soldier Coriolanus discovers he is out of his depths in the Roman Senate. Pressed by his controlling and ambitious mother to seek the high office, Coriolanus refuses to curry favor with the citizens who hold his political aspirations in their hands. When the public rejects him, Coriolanus's fury causes a riot and his exile from Rome. Banished, he turns to his greatest enemy, Tullus Aufidius, to join forces and seek revenge on the city.

Actor David Drummond plays the title role of Coriolanus. This is the third time Drummond has appeared in a production of Coriolanus, once before as Aufidius and once as Coriolanus. Also featured in the cast are: Therese Diekhans as Volumnia, Mike Dooly as Tullus Aufidius, and Peter A. Jacobs as Menenius Agrippa.

This is Seattle Shakespeare Company's first time producing Coriolanus.