King Lear in New York is not as exciting as Coriolanus nor as interesting as Christopher Fry's Venus Observed, but it adds variety. The Home Counties should flock to it.
What Walken doesn't do is address whether, underneath, Coriolanus is proud or not.
The Roman patricians respect their power, even if they dislike their origins and aspirations. Coriolanus himself, remember, is neither patrician nor lower class.
Clearly he has more talents than one realised. Robert Demeger stands out in both productions as one of the tribunes in Coriolanus and Camillo in The Winter's Tale.
Berkoff, an English actor, director and playwright, already has made his mark on New York theater this season with a critically acclaimed and radically reworked production of Shakespeare's "Coriolanus," starring Christopher Walken and Irene Worth.
There is a seamlessness to this production, a quality that also enhanced Berkoff's provocative staging of "Coriolanus," which played recently at the New York Shakespeare Festival.
The problem is that it is overshadowed by Roman power, just as Tullus Aufidius is overshadowed as a warrior by Coriolanus.