Titus Andronicus
You would be forgiven for not knowing the story of Titus Andronicus, or anything other than it being the goriest of Shakespeare's plays,
Having returned to Rome after defeating the Goths, Titus is now the people's favourite to become the next Emperor, following the death of the previous ruler. However, the Emperor’s sons Saturninus and Bassianus are keen to prove that they are more suited to following in their father’s footsteps.
Saturninus is chosen as the new Emperor and takes Tamora, Queen of the Goths, as his Empress of Rome. Titus has brutally sacrificed Tamora’s eldest son, Alarbus, and she is set on revenge. Her secret lover, Aaron, tricks Tamora's remaining sons into murdering Bassianus and raping and mutilating Lavinia, Titus's daughter.
Wrongly framed for this act Titus's sons are executed and Titus and his remaining son Lucius swear their revenge.
Tamora, meanwhile, gives birth to Aaron’s son, and having a Black father in the highly racist society of Rome will not reflect well on her, so she orders the child to be slain, although Aaron has other ideas.
Tamora then decides, as part of her revenge plan, to visit Titus disguised, with her two sons, but Titus sees through this and tricks her into leaving him with her sons, who he then murders and cooks in a pie, later feeding them to their mother.
Killing his daughter Lavinia to conceal her shame, then Tamora, the bloodbath continues as Titus is killed by Saturninus, who in turn is killed by Lucius.
Jade Hackett’s movement direction, combined with Lee Curran’s lighting and Matthew Herbert's musical composition (with sound design by Tingying Dong) creates an eerie, uncomfortable atmosphere to the piece.
The murder scenes are well choreographed (Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown) to begin with, but Max Webster’s direction feels a little bit rushed as the story progresses. What starts as intentional movements of stabbing and cutting turn to buckets and hoses of blood being splattered everywhere with the focus removed from the actual nature of the death’s occurring.
Natey Jones plays Aaron, Tamora’s lover and instigator of all things bloody. It is an impressive performance, building the character’s journey well, but it does feel like the story has been build around his point of view, rather than the title character Titus, played by Simon Russell Beale.
Joel MacCormack as Lucius is another sturdy performance as the surviving son who is tasked with gathering the Goth army to Rome to defeat the Emperor Saturninus and he comes firmly into the action in Act 2.
Overall, this is a good piece of theatre, but is not for the faint hearted, even though the general darkness of the play is lifted momentarily by small comic moments.
This show was reviewed on the 29th April 2025 at The RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon where it runs until the 7th June 2025. Tickets available here: Titus Andronicus | Royal Shakespeare Company
Review written by Rachel Louise Martin
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Photo credit: Marc Brenner
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