Tom Hiddleston’s Coriolanus impresses critics – WBNews

Thor star Tom Hiddleston gives a “powerhouse performance” in a new London production of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, according to one critic. Another praised his “fine” portrayal of the Roman soldier whose inability to compromise results in tragedy. Hiddleston, The Guardian’s review goes on, “conveys the hero’s complexity” as well as his “reckless impetuosity”. Sam Mendes and Sir Nicholas Hytner were among Tuesday’s first night audience at London’s Donmar Warehouse theatre. Image caption The shower scene is “extraordinary” according to one critic and “slightly desperate” according to another The BBC’s John Humphrys was also in attendance to see the first Shakespeare play the Donmar’s artistic director Josie Rourke has directed for the venue. According to The Guardian’s Michael Billington, Rourke “uses the Donmar’s intimacy to come up with a fast, witty, intelligent production”. Dominic Maxwell in The Times found the show “intimate and compelling”, while the Daily Telegraph’s Charles Spencer called it “exciting and intense”. Yet Quentin Letts expressed reservations in the Daily Mail, saying the production’s “numerous good points” were “diminished” by Rourke’s “silly directorial touches”. Letts cites one of these “touches” – a shower scene in which Hiddleston’s soldier removes his shirt and washes his wounds – as a “slightly desperate gambit”. The Times’ man was more appreciative though, saying the scene would “please the MTV viewers who have just voted Hiddleston the sexiest man in the world”. Spencer also singled out the “extraordinary moment” in which his “lean, mean killing machine… takes a shower after the battle and gasps…more detail