A video recording of a New York Shakespeare Festival 1979 stage production of Coriolanus with an all-black and Hispanic cast. Producer Joseph Papp intended to provide professional opportunities for actors of minority ethnic backgrounds. A banished hero of Rome allies with a sworn enemy to take his revenge on the city.
Acting
Morgan Freeman's Coriolanus is terrifying vulnerability wrapped in armor.
Production
Minimalist Roman-meets-contemporary design that weaponizes anachronism.
Direction
Leach keeps the camera invisible, preserving live theatrical electricity.
Director
Wilford Leach
Gloria Foster
Volumnia
CCH Pounder
Valeria
Earle Hyman
Cominius
Roscoe Orman
Adrian
Michele Shay
Virgilia
Keith David
Aedile / Roman Citizen / Volscian Citizen
Castulo Guerra
Senator / Nicanor / Officer
Denzel Washington
Roman Soldier / Volscian Soldier
Peter Francis James
Volscian Citizen / Roman Soldier / Volscian Soldier
Count Stovall
Volscian Citizen / Roman Soldier / Volscian Soldier
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Papp specifically chose Coriolanus for its class dynamics, believing black and Latino actors could expose Rome's institutional hypocrisies in ways all-white casts never could.
This was Morgan Freeman's first major Shakespeare role; he reportedly practiced his lines while working as a dancer at the 1964 World's Fair.
US
