“Coriolanus” is Rome for the XCIX Percent.

Shakespeare’s late work, Coriolanus is seldom read, much less staged, as Seattle Shakespeare Company has now done. Once seen, however—especially in this brilliant rendition—you can’t help but wonder why. The story of the arrogance of power is as strongly rendered here as it is in the more popular Julius Caesar or Richard II.

What director David Quicksall has done, however is to answer not just why perform it, but why perform it now. With contemporary costumes by Pete Rush and graffiti-inspired set by Carol Wolfe Clay, they have successfully embraced the obvious resonances with today’s rifts between haves and have-nots.

David Drummond is effectively brutal and proud as the General Caius Martius. We see him slashing and blood-spattered amid the glaring light and apocalyptic smoke of the Volscian city whose destruction earns him the title of Coriolanus.

By custom, his deeds earn him a seat as ruling Consul, which the Patton-like warrior wants, yet has no patience for politics. It is the common people of Rome, the plebeians, whom Coriolanus must submissively ask for the post, a show of humility he refuses to make.

In this production, the rabble carry signs saying, “We are Rome,” and demand a fairer share of the spoils from the indifferent aristocrats. When Senator Menenius Agrippa (the very able Peter A. Jacobs) calmly counters with the allegory of the limbs rebelling against the belly, he defends the paunch as if he’s talking about “job-creators.” General Cominius’ (Lance Spenser)  dismissals of the people’s complaints are as contemptuous as CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s trading floor rant against “losers.”  

All that’s missing are demands to “Occupy the Forum” over the people’s mic.

Yet such resonances aren’t mere fancy. The plebian demands for grain allude to the emerging enclosure movement of Shakespeare’s time, in which lands once held in common were converted to private use – an early step toward corporate power.

The show’s real success, however, is in its rich portrayals. Drummond lets Coriolanus’ pride be an awkward one, a man whose lack of equipment for public theatrics drives him to exile and an alliance with his onetime enemy. Mike Dooly weaves the Volscian commander Tullus Aufidius as a very human barbarian. And Therese Diekhans is gloriously fierce as Coriolanus’ bloodthirsty mother, Volumnia, a formidable woman who raises upper-class jackals.

What Quicksall’s deft direction makes clear is that Coriolanus’ spiteful end is rooted in a society cleaved by an imbalanced privilege and mutual contempt. If, as some would hold, we are the new Rome, it makes seeing this splendid production all the more urgent.

Seattle Shakespeare Company’s production of “Coriolanus” runs through January 29 at the Center House Theater at Seattle Center. Tickets: $15-$40; (206) 733-8222 or www.seattleshakespeare.org.

Pictured above are Mike Dooly as Tullus Aufidius and David Drummond as Caius Martius Coriolanus. Photo by John Ulman.