Titus+Andronicus+Critique

Hanna Alfredsson

THEA 3300

15 April 2017 Titus Andronicus Play Critique

 Titus Andronicus is a play by William Shakespeare, whose plays are known for their conceptual diversity. Setting, time period,

and atmosphere change from performance to performance and is usually created from the ideas of whomever the director and design

team consist of, and while many concepts create an enjoyable and wonderful show for the audience, I am disheartened to say that the

performance by UGA fell in the area of mediocrity. It was not merely one element of the show that caused the show to fall short, but

instead was a combination of factors.

 My first impression of Titus came from the set and atmosphere created within the Fine Arts theatre. I loved the mysterious and

heavy mood that the smoke gave me when I entered the theatre space. The set itself was eye-catching. I thought the minimalistic

approach to the set was well-done and also felt the sense of deterioration and restoration noted in the concept statement. The angularity

of the set was also very nicely done. Since the set was very basic and minimalistic, angling the platform off of stage right made it

extremely interesting. Of all the design elements, this was by the far the strongest.

 While the set by itself was well executed and interesting, adding the costumes to the equation began to muddle the appearance of

the show. I never really could put together the ‘worlds’ that the costume designer was attempting to create for the audience. While the

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Romans seemed uniform in style, the costumes of the goths were more mixed, containing different styles from character to character.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">The sons donned more modern looking clothing items in their cargo pants. However, Tamora and Aaron donned more Middle-Eastern

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">and African influenced clothing The last army, gathered up by lucius, seemed more fantastical in what seemed to be skeleton based

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">designs though i’m still not sure, and even further confused me. I understand that the designer was attempting to create different

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">worlds for each faction of people, but it just did not work in execution, especially with such a minimalistic set as the background. My

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">least favorite costumes in the show however would have to be those of the oracles. The pastel colors against the range of dark neutrals

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">worn by everyone else in the play was extremely harsh and looked quite funny and the led lights that they wore around their necks

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">were highly unnecessary. Also, they wore wigs that truly looked like cotton candy that was manipulated on their heads. Overall I

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">would have to say that the weakest element of the show would go to the costumes.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> The acting in the show was also very mediocre. I would be lying if I said that they were no notable performances. Aaron, played

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">by Marlon Burnley, was a truly evil performance. Their was never a moment of doubt in my mind that he was truly Aaron, Tamara's

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">evil secret lover. Titus, played by John Terry, was also another truly well done performance, showing the deterioration of Titus so

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">clearly and believably. I also thought Lucius, played by Anthony Nash, was acted very well. However, outside of those three I cannot

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">point to one other performance that I thought was well done. Tamora's character seemed forced and overacted a lot of the time. I also

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">did not feel a sense of revenge while watching her, which is her main motivation to destroy the Romans in the play. Lavinia's character

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">was also not believable. In the beginning of the play when discussing marriage to Saturninus, she acts very excited and happy with the

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">situation, but then in an instant claims to be engaged to Bassianus and suddenly seems completely against the idea of marrying

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Saturninus. This confused me greatly at the beginning of the show and their could have been a more clear distinction.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> Overall, I would have to say that I did not enjoy the performance of Titus Andronicus. Though the set was well done and

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">interesting, the characters and the costumes muddled the performance. While Shakespeare's works give freedom of creativity and

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">concept, this particular performance fell short, and did not seem to come full circle.