#susannah carson

Coriolanus is a terrifying play, though I've always found the part of Coriolanus himself to be curiously addictive. I haven't analyzed why, but I think I liked playing the part because of the anger in it. I like the outrageous anger and his contempt for the people. It's rather cathartic to express that extreme, obscene outrage. What Coriolanus says in his rage is fantastically politically incorrect, and I love playing that sense of his own certainty in his value system. And then, just dramatically, physically, vocally, there's a certain athleticism needed to play Coriolanus on stage, and that kind of challenge is like an adrenaline fix.

In my long career as a teacher, I have found that students, interviewers, and fellow readers keep asking me, 'Why Shakespeare?' It seems a question as necessary to ask as it is impossible to answer, unless you respond, 'Who else is there? Who but Shakespeare has influenced so many creative intellects?' The genealogy includes Milton, Austen, Dickens, Keats, and Emily Dickinson, and many of the strongest writers of our own generation. Who besides Shakespeare has perfected expressions of experience, and broadened and defined the horizons of human possibility? He has given us, through thirty-seven plays, 154 sonnets, and four longer poems, a secular religion.

Searching for Shylock - because I just received my copy of Living with Shakespeare, Essays by writers, actors, and directors (Vintage Books)