Titus (Brendan Averett), Lavinia (Kate Lydic), and Marcus (Terence MacSweeny) have some family business to clean up in New York Shakespeare Exchange production of TITUS ANDRONICUS (photo by Kalle Westerling)
HERE Main Stage Theater
145 Sixth Ave.
Through February 8, $18
www.here.org
shakespeareexchange.org
During its brief five-year existence, the New York Shakespeare Exchange has already put its unique spin on such Bard works as Pericles, Othello, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, and the sonnets in such experimental productions as The One Man (Two Man (Not Quite)) Hamlet, The Life and Death of King John, and “The Sonnet Project,” in addition to the ShakesBEER pub crawl. The company now turns its attentions to one of Shakespeare’s most violent tragedies, Titus Andronicus, a bloody tale of power and lust. The show begins with a fantastical dance of stabbings as the actors kill one another on the circuslike set that features a glittering light-up bull’s-eye in the back. But soon the story gets under way, as Roman general Titus Andronicus (Brendan Averett) returns a hero from the wars and is acclaimed as emperor, an honor he instead bestows on Saturninus (Vince Gatton), son of the recently deceased emperor. Saturninus at first chooses Lavinia (Kate Lydic), Titus’s daughter, to be his queen, but she runs off with her true love, Bassianus (Adam Kezele), Saturninus’s younger brother. The new emperor then decides to marry Tamora, the captured queen of the Goths, whose sons, Demetrius (Nathaniel P. Claridad) and Chiron (Ethan Itzkow), and lover, Aaron (Warren Jackson), are cooking up some vicious plans of their own. Jealousy, revenge, deceit, and dishonor follow, involving rape, murder, behandings, and beheadings.
The Clown (Kerry Kastin) has a special prize to present in stripped-down production of TITUS ANDRONICUS (photo by Kalle Westerling)
Helmed by New York Shakespeare Exchange founding artistic director Ross Williams, Titus Andronicus can be a bit rocky, with actors stepping on one another’s lines and some minor gaffes with the set — perhaps they should have gotten a few performances under their belt before inviting critics — but Averett (The Killer, Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is a strong, determined, yet vulnerable Titus, Terence MacSweeny is a stand-out as his stalwart brother Marcus, and Egolf is a fine foil as femme fatale Tamora. (A few of the other actors don’t fare so well.) Kerry Kastin is a kind of singular Greek chorus all by herself as the Clown, playing multiple roles and continually coming back from the dead. One of the play’s most intriguing conceits is the use of a feed chute through which corn tumbles whenever someone is killed — which happens a lot, the rat-a-tat sound taking the place of spurting blood. But don’t worry; there’s blood to be spilled as well. Part of the SubletSeries@HERE, Titus Andronicus could use a little more seasoning, but it’s nonetheless an involving, stripped-down version of a famously difficult, rarely presented play.