Patrick Page stars as the title war hero in Red Bull’s Titus Andronicus (photo by Carol Rosegg)
TITUS ANDRONICUS
The Pershing Square Signature Center
Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through May 3, $49-$129
www.redbulltheater.com
On my way into the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at the Signature Center to see Red Bull’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s rarely performed Roman play Titus Andronicus, I saw the company’s always-smiling founding artistic director, Jesse Berger, who was greeting ticket holders by the doors. I told him how much I had enjoyed the troupe’s 2016 production of Coriolanus at Barrow Street, a bloody and violent retelling of another of the Bard’s seldom-staged plays, and how terrific Patrick Page was in it, portraying the peace-seeking mediator Menenius Agrippa.
I pointed at the poster for Titus Andronicus, which depicts Page, who plays the title character, in a chef’s hat, surrounded by blood.
I said to Jesse, the director of the new show, “Looks like you’re promising sharp knives and lots of blood again.”
He responded, “I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”
I wasn’t.
The Goths seek revenge after an execution in bloody Shakespeare adaptation (photo by Carol Rosegg)
Red Bull’s Titus Andronicus is a glorious triumph, a bloody and violent — and hilarious — tale of power and revenge involving two warring sides, the Andronici and the Goths. A handy family tree is included in the program to help identify who’s who, although the narrative makes that clear as well.
The plot unfolds in an indeterminate time; the language is all Shakespeare’s, but there are guns, Budweiser tallboys, wristwatches, military and modern dress, sneakers, a paperback of Ovid’s Metamorphosis, and a hardbound copy of Alexandre Dumas’s 1846 novel The Count of Monte Cristo, one of the most famous revenge tales ever written. Beowulf Boritt’s set features about a dozen rounded pillars; the actors occasionally bring chairs and tables on and off and wander through the aisles and in the balcony, and there is a small trapdoor that serves multiple purposes.
The emperor has died, and his eldest son, Saturninus (Matthew Amendt), declares to the people that he will assume the throne, but his younger brother, Bassianus (Howard W. Overshown), believes that there should be a free and fair election, and the tribune Marcia Andronicus (Enid Graham) makes a case for her brother, Titus, a returning war hero, to become emperor. Bassianus is engaged to Titus’s only daughter, Lavinia (Olivia Reis), and knows that his brother is a vain, childish man unlikely to be a worthy ruler.
Titus then arrives with his three remaining sons, who all fought bravely in the war: Lucius (Anthony Michael Lopez), Mutius Valentine (Anthony Michael Martinez), and Quintus (Zack Lopez Roa). They are followed by five chained prisoners: Tamora (Francesca Faridany), queen of the Goths; her three sons, Alarbus (Blair Baker), Chiron (Jesse Aaronson), and Demetrius (Adam Langdon); and her secret lover, Aaron (McKinley Belcher III), a Moor. Titus announces that Alarbus, the queen’s eldest son, will be sacrificed as punishment for the Goths’ treachery and the death of three of Titus’s sons.
Tamora begs for mercy with a heart-wrenching plea: “Sufficeth not that we are brought to Rome, / To beautify thy triumphs and return / Captive to thee and to thy Roman yoke, / But must my sons be slaughtered in the streets / For valiant doings in their country’s cause? / O, if to fight for king and commonweal / Were piety in thine, it is in these. / Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods? / Draw near them then in being merciful. / Sweet mercy is nobility’s true badge. / Thrice noble Titus, spare my first-born son.”
Alarbus is then slain, his blood spurting on one of the pillars.
Titus surprises everyone by declining to seek the throne, throwing his support to Saturninus, who immediately accepts and proclaims that Lavinia will be his bride, even though she is betrothed to his brother. Titus agrees to give her to the new emperor, but Lavinia and Bassianus refuse, and Saturninus instead chooses Tamora for his bride, setting in motion a series of brutal, vengeful atrocities, each side trying to outdo the other in violent displays that splatter the pillars and floor with more and more blood.
Titus Andronicus (Patrick Page) leads a hunt for the Goths in Jesse Berger’s revelatory adaptation (photo by Carol Rosegg)
Titus Andronicus, which Shakespeare may have cowritten with George Peele and is not based on real history, has been adapted into a major film only once, the 1999 Titus, directed by Julie Taymor and starring Anthony Hopkins as Titus, Jessica Lange as Tamora, Alan Cumming as Saturninus, and Harry Lennix as Aaron. The Public has presented it at the Delacorte as part of its Shakespeare in the Park series only twice, in 1967 and 1989, the former with Jack Hollander, David Birney, Olympia Dukakis, Charles Durning, Moses Gunn, David Clennon, and Raul Julia, the latter with Donald Moffat, Bill Camp, Keith David, Kate Mulgrew, and Rainn Wilson.
Berger (The Government Inspector, Volpone) brings it back to life, directing with a sly hand while mixing a healthy dose of comedy into the fierce carnage, which involves rape and numerous body parts being disconnected from their owners. Amendt (Coriolanus, ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore) plays Saturninus as a whiny fool; Belcher, who just starred in Coriolanus at TFANA, winks knowingly several times at the audience, eliciting much-needed and unexpected laughter; Page (All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain, Hadestown) imbues Titus’s descent into madness with an occasional Looney Tunes glee; and the spurting of blood and chopped-off limbs are reminiscent of Monty Python’s “Salad Days” sketch, in which a garden party turns into a hilarious massacre as directed by Sam Peckinpah.
But that doesn’t mean that this Titus Andronicus is easy to watch; the rape scene is among the most savage and intense I have ever seen onstage, and no character emerges squeaky clean. Berger has trimmed it down to a lean two hours (plus intermission), and there are a couple of weak links in an otherwise exemplary cast led by the majestic Page, a true New York City treasure, a boldly ferocious Belcher, and a fine Overshown in two roles.
The full design crew deserves kudos, from Boritt’s set, Emily Rebholz’s costumes, and Jiyoun Chang’s lighting to Adam Wernick’s music, Wernick and Shannon Slaton’s sound, and Anya Kutner’s props.
In Taylor Mac’s fun, frenetic 2019 Broadway debut, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, Santo Loquasto’s Tony-nominated set was highlighted by a tremendous mound of corpses and body parts. After seeing Red Bull’s Titus Andronicus at the Signature Center, you’ll understand that all the more — and might even be able to identify some of the dead bodies and detached limbs.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]