Hi, tell us a bit about yourself! What do you study and what college?
Hi, we’re Beth and Ollie. We’re both at Trevs, studying eng lit and archeology respectively.
Before we get started, what is HCTC?
HCTC stands for Hill College Theatre Company, although we’re definitely not exclusive to hill colleges! HCTC presents one major play every term with the summer season always being dedicated to an outdoor Shakespeare production on the hill.
And for those who don’t know – give us a summary of Coriolanus!
While hunger for food brings a dangerous hunger for change, Rome’s enemies are arming for war. At the centre of these tectonic power struggles stands Coriolanus. After defeating the Voscis yet again, Coriolanus is named Rome’s greatest war hero, and is given the chance to become Consul. However, her huge ego and terrible public speaking skills, coupled with the manipulative talents of two antagonistic tribunes, and an already mutinous people, means this popularity doesn’t last for long. Banished from Rome, the only way for Coriolanus to save her pride is to join forces with her greatest enemy, Aufdius, leader of the Volscis.
You’ve decided to swap gender roles, so that women play men – why did you do this?
Its such a typically masculine play. War. Politics. Ancient Rome. What would it look like with some of the roles switched up a little? How would people react?
We’ve decided not to make the gender swapping a big thing. It shouldn’t be. One of our lead actors asked us at the start of rehearsals whether we wanted her to put any kind of ‘feminine charm’ into it, ‘feminine wiles’. We said no no no, obviously. It shouldn’t be a big deal. In this world we’ve created, where a woman can just as easily become Rome’s greatest war hero as a man, when would she ever need to use ‘feminine wiles’? We’ve really paid no attention to gender differences in rehearsals, which is how it should be in life really.
Do you think it’s difficult to play another gender?
Not really. Especially not in our production as we’ve changed the pronouns where necessary so we’re not exactly making our actors play characters of an opposite gender. Our actors play the characters as they would if they were in those situations themselves, not as if they were pretending to be men.
What changes has it made to the play as a whole?
Hopefully not many. We’re playing the production straight; minimalistic but still period, with a lot of vicious fighting. There’s very little gender politics in the script anyway as its mostly just all played by men, so having it mostly all played by women now hasn’t really shaken things up that much in that sense.
Would you say that having women play men, is better than men playing men?
I mean, probably not. As in, people playing the genders they’re most comfortable with is always going to look more realistic. That’s why we’ve completely changed the genders in the script so we don’t compromise this.
Do you have any men playing women?
This is actually one of the biggest features of our production, and probably likely to be the most shocking.
Anyone who knows the play will know how much of a powerful, overbearing, slightly creepy character Coriolanus’s mother Volumnia is in the original play. Well in our play, we’ve made this character a man.
Its interesting the reactions we get in rehearsals from our actors, as we all realize how much more shocking Volumnia’s lines are when read by a man. Although we’ve told Wilf to play the tension way way down in his scenes, it’s still fairly terrifying how overbearing and even sexual this character is. Changing the genders up really highlights this.
Apart from gender switching – what else can we expect from this performance?
A visceral, immersive, minimalistic but intensely physical production with fighting, blood, tears, and a hiphop soundtrack.
Who is your favourite character in the play and why?
Beth: I mean, this might be a fairly obvious answer, but I really like Coriolanus. She’s such a complex character. A lot of people read Cory as just a proud, egotistical, power-hungry warrior, but that’s completely not the case. Deeply honour driven, loyal and loving to her family, and uncomfortable with public speaking, or even hearing herself praised, Cory is innocent of the manipulative twists and turns of politics, and completely unable to act against her nature. She doesn’t fight for power, spoils or the joy of bloodshed, she fights only to prove her strength and protect her State. In many ways, Cory can’t help but be a puppet to the various parties of the play, and is definitely a puppet to her anger and emotions.
Ollie: I personally really enjoy the two tribunes Brutus and Sicinius. They are set on seeing Coriolanus’ demise and try to undermine him at every turn. I think they are my favourite characters because of their sly underhand tactics and slippery demeanour that really just engage me as an audience member. Moreover they are flawed. Shakespeare is just great at presenting layered characters and this really shines through with these two underhand politicians.
What’s been the best bit about being directors?
Beth: Having the power to completely re-imagine one of the most important texts in the Western Cannon. Its so so exciting putting your own creative vision on something that’s been worked on so many times, and realizing you can still produce something fresh.
Ollie: I think the best bit is just seeing a play come together as a whole. The whole creative process of just inventing a play out of nowhere is really cool to witness from any position.
Do you prefer directing to acting, and if so, why?
Beth: Directing. Mostly because I can’t act. I always think I can but I really can’t.
Ollie: They are both really exciting things to do. I’m just a massive fan of drama as a medium… Sorry lame answer.
What is our all-time favourite play?
Beth: I’m going to be the most mainstream English student now and say Hamlet. I’ve seen about six different productions of it now and each one has been completely fresh and different. Its such an open play when it comes o interpretation.
Ollie: I am so bad at picking favourites. Right now I’d probably say “Very Hard Times” which I saw ages ago in a tiny local theatre back home. It’s all about theatre going wrong and it had me in stitches from start to finish. I love that theatre does not need huge budgets or overly complex sets to still produce an emotive reaction from the audience.
Where can we see the show/get tickets and when is it?
The show is running from Thursday 21st January to Saturday 23rd of January, the first weekend of epiphany term at the Assembly Rooms. Tickets are available online at https://community.dur.ac.uk/dst/show.php?show=1289 and you can check out our Facebook event for all the details: https://www.facebook.com/events/947274225308251/