Review+of+Titus

THEA 2000 Lily Houston 17 April 2017 Titus Andronicus Review

//Titus Andronicus // is a Shakespeare play about revenge. It follows tragedy and destruction in the life of Titus. This Shakespearean play is not as well-known as many others, but it’s one of the most violent. The play opens as Titus has just defeated the Goths and has taken Tamora and her sons captive. Then, Titus is dethroned as emperor and Saturninus takes over. He then tries to marry Lavinia, Titus’ daughter, but she elopes so he makes Tamora his wife. This is when the destruction begins. The director had to make a lot of decisions with this play. It obviously had to be cut down, and there were many obstacles with many characters and scenes. Overall, the director did an adequate job, but there were a few flaws.

There are a lot of characters in this play which adds to the confusion. Titus is the main character. He was portrayed by John Terry. This character was my favorite. I feel like John did a great job giving off the vibe of a forceful character. He showed the arrogance of Titus, but also was great at portraying the grief and frustration. I must mention the fact that I feel like most his lines were surrounded around him losing his hand; which this is funny, but became a bit overkill. John also looked the part. Next, is Tamora. She was played by Taylor Wood. I have seen Taylor in a few UGA productions, and sometimes I feel like she is unauthentic. Tamora is obviously an awful person, and Taylor did an amazing job portraying that personality. Her hand gestures are what really struck me as odd. Tamora’s costume was also peculiar, but I’ll talk about that later. Taylor fit the persona of Tamora and is just as gorgeous as I imagine Tamora to be. Daniel Stock was Marcus. He had a lot of poetic lines. This slowed down the action a lot. This happened especially when Lavinia comes out after being attacked. He has a whole spill before doing anything then when he finally brings her to Titus, he still rattles off more poetry. I liked his performance, but his lines were much longer and harder to follow than others.

Lavinia was played by Brittney Harris. I feel like she should not have been cast as Lavinia. She was Jane in Jane Eyre last semester, and she brought Lavinia to the stage in the same way. Jane Eyre is a more tender, plain character, but Lavinia is a someone who is supposed to be beautiful and less tender. I don’t think Brittney was a good choice for Lavinia. One major problem I found was in the beginning when she was supposed to be marrying Saturninus. She acted fine, but seconds later eloped with Bassianus so that struck me as odd. But later, she did an amazing job after Lavinia lost her hands. This part of Lavinia was perfect for Brittney. Aaron was also cast very well. He was played by Marlon Burnley. I like him playing one of the antagonists. Saturninus was supposed to be a more comical character because of his facial expressions towards the audience. He was played by Charlie Cromer. I felt like he was a genuine Shakespeare character. His emotion sometimes was a little farcical, but I enjoyed his performance. The more minor characters were also cast well, but some of them did not have consistent accents. This to me is a problem because it takes audience members out of the scene. This brings me to the oracles. I was confused about their purpose. Were they citizens of Rome or from a higher power? Their role was not consistent so that could be confusing for theatregoers not super familiar with the play.

Let’s move on to the setting. The setting was unique; it consisted of wood and a tower. There was hole in the stage and a lot of action took place inside. The stage was used very well and kept the audience intrigued. The downstage left and right areas were used for characters to give sides and the tower are being used in more intense scenes. The pit-like area was used to put bodies after people died and to show a depth of the stage. I liked the stage setup altogether because it was very different and gave flexibility to the stage without having to change sets. Props used really brought everything together. Not many props were used so I would have liked to have seen more to bring a sense of realism to the production. The sounds were very inconsistent throughout the play. In the beginning, the characters come in with drums; it was very high energy and was a nice touch. But the energy tapered off after that. Some things had sound effects that were not necessary and other parts did not have sound effects at all. Once, when one of the oracles pours something out of the bucket, there is a sound effect that sounds like something being poured. It was not necessary, but when Titus and his entourage go hunting, the dog barking sound effect was nice because it added scenery that otherwise would not have been detected.. Also, when Titus’ hand gets cut off, the sword sound effect was also cool. Sometimes, the music didn’t seem to fit, and occasionally, the microphones used sounded grainy whenever someone stood inside the tower; however, I liked when the oracles talked because their microphones made it sound like they were coming from a higher place. Overall, the sound was fine, but it had issues at some points.

The lighting was consistent throughout the whole play. There was nothing really unique about it except in a couple of instances. When Titus cutoff Tamora’s son’s heads and when Aaron cut of Titus’ hand. The lights when to a more intense, harsh color and everything slowed down. This was a cool effect because it made the action possible to take place on stage. In this section I will also talk about the lights on the oracles dresses. This lighting was weird because sometimes it was distracting. I realize the lighting on the dresses also gave a glow to the faces, but I still didn’t like it. The lighting all together was average, but it was nothing special. With that being said, let’s discuss costumes. The costumes were not cohesive in my opinion. If n audience member were just looking at the costumes, they wouldn’t know what time period we were in. Some costumes like Tamora’s and her son’s looked like a barbaric age while Titus’ looked more Cesarean age. Lavinia’s looked more like 18th century England. Then some of the minor character’s costumes looked like the 1920’s. Tamora’s costume did not fit, in my opinion. I feel like the costume designer should have come up with a time period and stuck with it. I feel like everything should have been Cesarean or Middle Ages. Now, back to the oracles. They wore pastel colors and their hair looked like clouds. It did not fit, and it confused me about their role within society. Darker colors would have fit better, like a royal blue, purple, or red. Costumes are necessary to show the time period and they did not give a clue. Overall, costumes were not up to par.

People in the audience were obviously college students. Usually, I don’t let people affect my opinions about plays, but this play was gory! One girl sitting in front of me had her hands over her ears and eyes for most the play. I like gore, and I think it is cool when violence is portrayed correctly, but many times I felt like there were opportunities for gore that were not taken. The only times when there was real gore (blood) was when Lavinia is mutilated and when Tamora’s sons get their heads cut off. There was a lot of death so the blood and gore was not consistent in each one. The audience laughed a few times when lines were “punny” or awkward. I probably would not recommend this play to my friends who don’t love theatre since it was hard to follow. I love to read Shakespeare plays, as I love poetry that has so much emotion, but I must admit that I don’t like going to see Shakespeare plays because they can be boring with all the flowery language which slows action down. I love to see Shakespeare plays adapted into something more modern, and while //Titus Andronicus// was different than what was originally performed, it was still drab in my opinion. The main problems were the costumes, the accents, and the slow action. In relation to the other plays this semester, it was probably my least favorite just because it did not grab my attention.