Mickey Sumner has never been particularly interested in staying in one lane. After early turns in cult indie flicks like Frances Ha and a transition to high-octane TV with Snowpiercer and Task, she has stepped into Shakespeare’s most combustible arena. In Theatre for a New Audience’s The Tragedy of Coriolanus, running through March 1 at Brooklyn’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Sumner plays Tullus Aufidius, the general’s sworn enemy, political foil, and uneasy double.
Directed with a contemporary edge by Ash K. Tata and set “just after now,” the production stars McKinley Belcher III in the title role, alongside Roslyn Ruff as Volumnia and a broader cast that includes Meredith Garretson, Jason O’Connell, Zuzanna Szadkowski, and Sarin Monae West. The Polonsky, New York’s first designated classical drama stage since Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont, proves an apt setting for Shakespeare’s fierce meditation on pride, populism, and spectacle.
Below, Sumner documented opening night drama for CULTURED—from last-minute hair tweaks and director notes to a bloody mess and a visit from her father, Sting, post-show.
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