tk+titus

Taylor Keller Professor Richmond

THEA 2000

17 April 2017 Titus Critique  //Titus Andronicus// is about a Roman general who is stuck in a cycle of revenge including serious scenes of rape and murder. All this almost drives Titus mad and there was more blood seen than I ever imagined. Having such mature themes that still resonant to this day is what I feel like Shakespeare wanted his plays to do: connect people. I thoroughly enjoyed watching UGA’s production of this Shakespearean play and I commend them for putting on a play of this magnitude. I went with roommate, who did get a little lost, but having studied Shakespeare vastly in high school, I feel this production did his script justice in many aspects like gore, set,, lighting/sound and acting. My biggest complaint was how long it was and consecutively going on for that long. I got very antsy, but I know Shakespeare’s plays are known to be lengthy and the production kept a pretty good pace throughout which allowed me to not think about how long it was feeling. Overall, behind //Machinal//, this is my favorite play I have seen this semester. Before watching the play, I did some research about it to make sure I fully understood why this play is so vastly known. Although Shakespeare has many graphic scenes within a lot of his plays, Titus Andronicus is known for being very gory and graphic and this production was right on the money with that aspect. I knew ahead of time this play was going to be gory so I was prepared and as well know it is just a part of Shakespeare’s writings. All of bloody scenes were executed eloquently and I was actually surprised how well they worked out. Having the blood come out of Lavinia’s mouth really shocked the whole crowd including myself. Most of the scenes were pretty convincible, the ones that weren’t did not bother me that much because I was focused more on the play and it was so unrealistic that it came off humorous. I definitely believe the gore in this play is needed and this production over all did a fantastic job at executing the scenes and personally it was one of my favorite parts because I was on the edge of my seat to know who was going to have blood gushing form next.

Where do I even begin with the set? It was fantastic and used in so many creative ways. Having this is the first play we have seen on a bigger stage, this design did this space justice. Most of the set consisted of wood material and a large tower which is very medieval time-esk. Having the tower be tall was pleasing to the eye and my theater experienced self with having levels. Even though it was used much, I felt the presence alone was beneficial to the stage design because of the height and how cool it looked. (Yes, I’m basing this off a cool factor.) Throwing the dead bodies into the “pit-like” part of the stage was an interesting way to use the stage as well and unexpected in a great way. The actors really had to use the stage and demonstrate where they were and arrange to what they needed to each scene. I mentioned this in //Machinal// review, but I am a huge fan of simplistic stages because I feel like the acting if it’s believable enough allows you in dive into the story alone. Having little stage helped the actors progress the play by changing the furniture to have a quick scene change. The lack of props did bother me a little bit, but the ones they did use added to current scenes and were not random or used for no reason. The actors worked like a well-oiled machine and executed this minimalistic stage excellently consistently from beginning to end. Oh, and their acting was spot so I felt like the stage did not have to compensate for lack of.

Lighting and sound a lot of the time is something that gets looked over when discussing plays unless it was bad or ineffective, but I think that is good thing. Lighting and sound it supposed to portray the play in a realistic way and sometimes when it is nature an executed correctly, you don’t even realize how great it is. Titus’ sounds and lighting together allowed the whole plot to progress and emphasize what we needed to pay attention to. Walking into the theater there was smoke that was already present; this was a lovely surprise that you already got to know how the mood would be like for the play. When the light hit the fog it gave a really cool eerie effect which added to the doom-filled theme. I am a huge fan of entrances in the audience or surprising the audience with unexpected entrances and the beginning scene did both The drummers coming in through the back of the house quickly already grabbed the audience’s attention. Having the drum allowed to show that there was just a battle as well and I think it kicked off the play in a fabulous prologue without having any lines yet. The sword fight used sound was effective to me in the scene with Titus’ hand being cut off because it intensified the violence and provided an even more dramatic aspect to add to this already monumental scene. The lighting helped set the mood in many ways as well with shifting colors. Red (color of blood and intensity) has you feeling very different than blue (color associated with water and sky and more calm.) With just the lights changing you were able to understand a shift in mood in a creative way.  Now let me get to what I feel is most important within this critique: the acting. Shakespeare is never easy and takes a lot proportion as well as rehearsal to be astonishing because it is done so often in so many ways. In my opinion, I felt it was casted very strong with all incredible actors and actresses that I kept forgetting were kids around my age. The actors were the reason that all the other aspects of the play came together so beautifully and meshed as well as it did. Knowing these were college students astounded me because this was a long drawn out production with a lot of dialogue and action scenes within. There were very strong actors, but I fell that Lavinia stood out above as the best. Actions always speak louder than words and although her character was soft-spoken with not many lines, you could feel her presence in a scene so strongly from her body language. Being raped is a such a serious topic to dive into in your mind in the most frightening way and I had my heart in my stomach with her portrayal that made her seem so human and not like an actress on stage. The actor who played the comical Saturninus did a fantastic job with facial expression and playing with audience. The night I saw it everyone in crowd was very responsive not only to his wittiness but to all scenes. The actors controlled the stage with presence and confidence in Shakespeare’s fantastic script.

I was not a huge fan of the costumes and did not feel like the whole cast came together as one. Other than that, the length of the play is my only complaint. I feel like unless you are a fan of theater, you could not fully enjoy the excellence of this production. Shakespeare is not for everyone, but I sure with it was. His portrayal of love, betrayal, and life battles are like no other playwright in history and I feel like it needs to be held on the highest pedestal of playwrights. This production of Titus I felt was Shakespeare was like how his plays are supposed to be enjoyed: the actors the main part of the production with everything else (set, costumes, lighting/sound, etc) as the cherry on top. The actors did not feel like actors to me and felt more like humans with conflicts. I love Shakespeare and always will and thoroughly enjoyed seeing my first production of Titus through UGA.