Reviewed by James Karas
The scenes: a woman is raped by two thugs and her hands and tongue are cut off; a
man’s hand is cut off by a hacksaw; a man is sacrificially killed; there are
numerous stabbings; dinner is served and the main dish is a meat pie filled
with human flesh.
The assignment: Stage them.
No, this is not a
black comedy but Titus Andronicus, a revenge tragedy by Shakespeare. It is now
playing at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in a production by the
redoubtable Royal Shakespeare Company.
Director Michael
Fentiman and Designer Colin Richmond have opted for a straight-faced reading of
the play with mostly judicious choices that provide an effective and restrained
production. With Titus Andronicus
“judicious” can mean something as basic as not provoking giggling from the
audience. They managed to avoid giggling almost completely.
The play is set
ostensibly in ancient Rome but this production has a variety of elements that
set it somewhere between ancient Rome and sometime in the future. Some of the
men wear modern jackets and pants with an emphasis on black. There are some
purple arm bands that, together with the black shirts, could be construed as
Nazi paraphernalia. The Roman soldiers wear black helmets in a shape that made
them look like people from some sci-fi movie. The Goth soldiers wear primitive
attire. Titus and his sons wear burgundy officers’ jackets. Although there is a
radio on stage, there are no guns, only swords and daggers. The play is thus
set in no particular era and the design works.
Stephen Boxer is an
effective Titus. He is mostly stentorian in the opening scenes but his character
and his attitude change when he goes mad and regains his sanity later in the
play. Many of the other characters in the play are mostly one-sided leaving scant
room for development or introspection. However, Boxer delivers the goods.
Saturninus (John
Hopkins) and Bassianus (Richard Goulding) are the sons of the late Emperor and
they are vying for his job. There is not much difference between the two but
Fentiman cleverly makes Saturninus a bit effeminate while Bassianus is the more
macho figure.
Tamora, the Queen of
the Goths (Katy Stephens) is an exuberant character from her begging for her
sons’ life in the beginning of the play to her energetic embrace of evil
throughout.
Aaron the Moor,
Tamora’s lover, stands out for the sheer breadth of his evil. Kevin Harvey has
one of those deep, rolling bass voices that is just a pleasure to hear. You do
not want his Aaron as your neighbor.
Perry Millward as
Demetrius and Jonny Weldon as Chiron make an impressive duo of remorseless
thugs. They are the sons of Tamora and are outside the pale of morality as
recognized by most people.
Worthy of mention is
the performance of Richard Durden as Marcus Andronicus. He has a deep voice and
displays gravitas among a lot of shouting and killing.
Lavinia, beautiful,
blonde, dressed in white, is lovely to behold. She is Titus’s daughter who is
raped and mutilated and Rose Reynolds is very good in the role. She does her
best work after she is mutilated as she tries to identify her attackers.
What does the
creative team do with the blood and gore? The first murder is the sacrifice of the
Goth Alarbus (Nicholas Prasad). As his attackers descend on the victim, a trap
door opens and they are all lowered below stage. The killers come up covered in
blood, carrying a large bowl of Alarbus’s body parts. The same is done with
Lavinia and she emerges covered in blood and mud. She spits out blood from her
severed tongue. Her severed hands are stumps and she is one need hardly say a
pretty pathetic sight. The irony is that the blood and gore are not all that
gross.
The rest of the
stabbings are fairly antiseptic if numerous. One scene does stand out and that
is the severing of Titus’ hand. He must offer one hand as proof of loyalty and
Fentiman has it cut off on stage with a hacksaw.
Titus Andronicus is part of
the Shakespearean canon and is probably produced for that reason alone. It was
very popular in its day but the 20th century held a dim view of it.
Aside from its historic interest, the way a director stages those vile scenes
peaks one’s curiosity. Do we get enough revolting detail or are we left
disappointed?
This production has
its good points but in the end making meat pies with human flesh is just not
what it used to be.
___________
Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare opened on May 23 and continues in repertory
until October 26, 2013 at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, England. http://www.rsc.org.uk/
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