Ten minutes of shouting open the play. Sitting in the front row, this came very close to giving me a headache.  Juliet Cameron-Wilson treads the tightrope between hysterics and overacting, and falls off on the wrong side, while Coriolanus’ rallying cries are delivered by a less piercing if no less ear-splitting Justin Wells.  I was relieved when everybody just calmed down a little.  The play varies in its tone and pitch, but only across episodes and not enough within individual scenes and speeches.

Wells otherwise gives a strong and assured performance, which could have been made even more convincing with another look at his lines before this evening’s performance.  He leads a cast of great talent, which is evident most fully in Kim Jarvis’ portrayal of Menenius.  Her strength of voice combined with clever casting for her frailty of frame gives a great contrast with Wells and Daniel Unruh, playing his fellow Roman general.  The tribunes are played very commendably as strong caricatures, but I question whether their roles are in fact small enough to be played in such cameo-like fashion; they grow increasingly tiresome, not to mention the fact that Chloe France’s back will be in tatters if she keeps that posture up all week.  Georgia Wagstaff is understated as Virgilia but ended up convincing me that she can act, while Adam Kirton successfully individuates his Volscian general Aufidius from his Roman enemies with subtle touches in addition to his partial nudity.

The set is excellently designed by Zoe Klinck, draped in tarpaulins and encircled by the actors themselves.  There are further clever touches throughout, with liberal use of jam and shoe polish.  We also have some mood music from guitarist Michael Campbell, who, from the looks of an advert that went out over the weekend, joined the cast very late in the day.  His strumming does add to certain speeches, though the actors would probably have benefited from more rehearsal time to combine their lines with the rhythms and swells of the guitar a little more effectively.

The staging is certainly inventive, but the action gives this performance the feel of a play that is playing around rather than going anywhere in particular.  In the director’s notes, Fergus Blair shares with us his aim to "do something really interesting … something different".  What-thing different, I wonder?  This is a production that tells a good tale in an aesthetically pleasingly way – but amounts to precious little more than this.

Coriolanus plays at the Corpus Playroom at 7pm until Saturday.