Arts Centre Melbourne’s Fairfax Studio has rarely felt so taut with political tension as in Peter Evans’s sleek and potent staging of Coriolanus. In this rare treat from Bell Shakespeare, Evans delivers a lean, modern-dress version of Shakespeare’s uncompromising tragedy, stripping away clutter to expose the raw mechanics of power, pride and populism.
Hazem Shammas, in the title role, commands the stage like a coiled spring. His Coriolanus is a soldier first, statesman never, unyielding in honour yet fatally disdainful of the very people he is meant to serve. Shammas’s performance is precise: every glare, clipped consonant, and explosive shift of energy feels deliberate, building a portrait of a man whose virtues and flaws are indistinguishable.
Around him, the ensemble hums with political life. Peter Carroll is magnetic as Menenius, wielding wit and wisdom in equal measure. His scenes, whether charming plebeians or soothing patricians, are quietly riveting.
Brigid Zengeni, in a powerhouse Bell Shakespeare debut, gives Volumnia a steely grandeur, shaping each plea and command with a mother’s pride and a strategist’s cunning. Anthony Taufa’s Aufidius provides an intriguing counterpoint to Shammas, his rival’s grounded intensity makes their encounters bristle with danger.
The political heartbeat of the piece is amplified by Matilda Ridgway and Marco Chiappi as the tribunes Sicinius and Brutus, both sharp and unapologetically manipulative. Suzannah McDonald lends Virgilia a quiet dignity, making her moments of tenderness all the more striking. Septimus Caton (Titus), Gareth Reeves (Cominius) and Jules Billington (Citizen 1) fill the world with urgency and detail, never letting the momentum flag.
Evans’s set is deceptively simple: a sliding platform and staging that keep the audience in the thick of the action. The Fairfax Studio becomes an arena, both for battle and for the verbal jousts of Rome’s volatile politics.
Ella Butler’s costumes ground the production in a militarised, contemporary aesthetic, while Amelia Lever-Davidson’s lighting slices the space into zones of intimacy or confrontation with cinematic precision. Max Lyandvert’s sound design, part industrial hum, part martial pulse, seeps into the bones, while Nigel Poulton’s movement and fight choreography give the clashes, physical and verbal, a visceral edge.
What makes this Coriolanus sing is its clarity. Evans trusts Shakespeare’s language, allowing the design and performances to illuminate rather than overwhelm it. The themes, democracy’s fragility, the corrosive nature of pride, and the ease with which the crowd can be swayed – emerge with an urgency that feels uncomfortably current.
By the time Coriolanus meets his fate, the stage feels transformed into a crucible where personal integrity and political expedience have been tested and found fatally incompatible.
Coriolanus
Fairfax Studio – Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Performance: Friday 25 July 2025
Season continues to 10 August 2025
Bookings: www.artscentremelbourne.com.au
For more information, visit: www.bellshakespeare.com.au for details.
Images: Hazem Shammas and Anthony Taufa in Bell Shakespeare’s Coriolanus – photo by Brett Boardman | Gareth Reeves and Brigid Zengeni in Bell Shakespeare’s Coriolanus – photo by Brett Boardman | Septimus Caton, Hazem Shammas, Peter Carroll, Gareth Reeves, Matilda Ridgeway and Marco Chiappi in Bell Shakespeare’s Coriolanus – photo by Brett Boardman
Review: Rohan Shearn