Christopher Brown plays the title role in Coriolanus which is presented by the Nashville Shakespeare Festival in collaboration with Naked Stages. He is a member of Naked Stages‘ ensemble who has worked with Nashville’s Mockingbird Public Theater, the GATE conservatory in New York City and The Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C. Brown is currently a member of Chicago’s Blue Man Group. He was interviewed early in the rehearsal process:
1. What specific challenges have you had in preparing to play Coriolanus?
This type of question has always been difficult for me. I think that’s because the challenges in a role never occur to me until after the production has ended. During the process I usually find that what I later discover to be challenges are the things that, at the time, I saw as revelations. We’re currently only on our third day of rehearsal and the process is still unfolding and finding it’s mobility, so, I don’t believe I have anything I can truthfully say about revelations yet. We’re still in a phase of familiarizing ourselves with one another and with the bones of the script. A part of the process that will continue, of course, but not one that has yet produced any electric revelations. Personal challenges that are related to the play are having to adjust to a new schedule and a new environment. I love being back in Nashville, and I also miss my home in Chicago. So, that creates conflict. And I wouldn’t mind having more than two options for food and libations that stay open later than midnight. Any suggestions?
2. What has it been like transitioning from your work in Blue Man Group to this role?
With Blue Man Group I perform a character who works without the benefit of language. So, that show is a completely different set of skills as a performer. Even down to the techniques of breathing, in Blue Man the breathing is almost entirely a variation of tantric breath that uses the nose mostly. With CORIOLANUS the breathing has to involve the mouth and nose as well as multiple different breathing rhythms. In addition to this, the character I play in Blue Man is based in more broad archetypal traits such as innocence, discovery, and curiosity. These traits are springboards for what becomes a largely improvisatory experience each night rooted in a skeletal template for the show. With Coriolanus, I’m dealing with a character that is far more specific and complex from the beginning of the process and has to be grounded in a director’s vision, the playwright’s construction, and a large cast of vastly different character energies . . . all informing the arc of the play simultaneously. I love this challenge, by the way.
3. The advertising for this production says the play is Shakespeare’s most “political” work. What makes it so political?
We have a city. The city is divided into classes. One class operates on the level of labor and agriculture and this class is starving from a lack of corn and representation. They’re none to happy and are screaming for the heads of the elite Senate. The second class operates on the level of policy and economics and this class is trying to form a system of sustainable government out of its wealth and opposing agendas. They’re none to happy because the people they rely on to feed and clothe them are not willing to shut up and let Senatorial authority organize the life of the city. We have a warrior. The best warrior in the military. A legend. A man who lives to do his job and do it well. This man lives almost exclusively by a code involving honor, honesty, nobleness, courage, and humility. He holds not only himself to this code but all of humanity, and there are no half measures where this is concerned. He sees both classes to be diseased in some way because of their lack of solidarity and commitment to the code. Both classes see this man as a leader. The first class see him as a potential tyrant and want his death before he can damage them. The second class see him as their beacon shining the path to peace and order. He wants to have nothing to do with either side’s vision of him. He simply wants to be left alone to do what he does best and live by the code. But he’s pushed into this political arena by the agendas of both sides.
4. Is the relationship between Coriolanus and his mother Volumnia the most important interaction between characters in this play? If yes, why, if no, which relationship would you say is most important?
Hard question . . . because I can argue for both yes and no. Volumnia is the “ultimate stage mother”, not my words but words already spoken by other cast members in this production. Her deep interest, nearly obsessive interest, in the advancement of her son’s life into the political realm of Rome as consul is much more about status and security of power than what’s best for her son and his family. Coriolanus himself has no strong desire to pursue this political position if it means he must give up the honesty of his convictions about the trouble in Rome and the solutions he sees will work to solve those problems. He refuses to play The Game with the citizens and patricians. He speaks his mind and no one likes what truth he tells. They wish him to stand on ceremony. If Volumnia did not wield the power she does over her son to achieve her personal agendas in the politics of Rome, the play would not exist. By that right, the relationship between them is a central one. However, this relationship is only one of the few that spoke off from Coriolanus himself that affect his decisions and actions in the play. There is his relationship to the Tribunes, Brutus and Sicinius, that affect his choice to release his choler on the people of Rome. His relationship to Menenius, his mentor, which affects his decision to present himself before the people in a custom of election which, at heart, he finds dishonest. His relationships to his wife and son which affect his decision to choice treaty over war. His relationship to his enemy, Tullus Aufidius, which affects his choice to seek vengeance for things done to him and his family. And there are others. So, ultimately, I would say that the most important relationship in the play is the one the patrician and military class have to the plebeians. And how each side uses Coriolanus to achieve their goals.
5. What would you like audiences to be thinking about and/or feeling after they see this production?
As a performer I’ve never concerned myself with the audience’s feelings during or after a performance. Because to me that is a sort of manipulation that goes against the giving and ego-less nature of performance. It’s not the job of an actor to create feeling in the audience. It’s the actor’s job to represent a mirror to humanity as best they can through the experience of the production. The attempt to elicit specific emotions from the audience cheapens the audience’s role in the play. It implies that the audience is autonomous in its emotions . . . that the audience has no individuality from person to person and from night to night. What I hope each person walks away thinking about is a different story. I hope people will take a sense of communal commitment away from the park. I hope the production will spark, particularly in this historical election year, the thought in those who normally take a cynical or defeatist attitude toward the fight for good local, national, and global leadership to get deeper involved into the discourse and action of changing the political landscape of our world with a positive and strong spirit . . . and . . . that it emboldens those who are already deeply involved in this fight with a sense that their efforts are constantly necessary and full of meaning. As both Emerson and Whitman have recognized, as well as countless others, we’ve yet to achieve the highest potential in this experiment called Democracy, and, like all concepts of government, it will always need new ideas and active advancements to create an affirming connection between people.
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Kate Al-Shamma recently relocated to Nashville from California. She currently teaches acting, voice, and movement at Belmont University and has taught these and related performance courses at universities in San Francisco and Santa Barbara over the past fourteen years. As both a performer and a director, Kate specializes in image-driven theatre, which includes Shakespeare as well as improvisational forms of choreographic theatre. She recently made her Nashville directing debut with Actors Bridge Ensemble’s production of BLUE/ORANGE.
