Review: Titus Andronicus

This production of Shakespeare’s ‘Titus Andronicus’ has its moments but is ultimately amateurish

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You may instantly suspect that the reason this play takes place in the EFL is because it didn’t put in a successful bid for a proper venue. This suspicion is well founded.

Unless you were doing some sort of meta-theatrical lecture-based piece of aggressively hipster drama, it was inevitably going to look a bit cheap.

The set was bare for all but a wrinkled American flag over the balcony and a sign bearing ‘US68’ (laminated as well which threw the stage lights off #justsaying) stuck onto the podium. I’m all for minimalism, but choosing to perform one of Shakespeare’s most indulgent tragedies via a shaky period-setting was not for me.

But that’s not to say this choice from director Richard Elliot was a disaster – I actually found the opening scene captivating. There was a sense of unity of performance and on-point blocking which was lacking as the play progressed.

The Vietnam/Hendrix/Nixon thing was not made enough of, and so ended up superfluous, but the initial monologues, under the guise of a press conference (a nice nod to the lecture-room-set), had a degree of urgency and authority, although I felt Jimmy McConville as Saturninus was perhaps a little too softly-spoken.

For a production of ‘Titus Andronicus’, a play which forces the staging of rape, copious stabbings and cannibalism, it was a bit anti-climactic. With such rich source material the opportunity is there for thesps to go wild, and I often found myself daydreaming.

Not every staging of Shakespeare needs to have Olivier-style wailing and litres of blood for it to have value and this quieter production did have some impressive moments of acting: Lara Panahy as Lavinia committed to the role and has a naturally interesting tone to her delivery and the villains brought the most interesting interchanges. Andrew Laithwaite’s domineering yet tempered voice lusted on the language and added a very seductive sphere to his Aaron which matched nicely to Katie McGunagle’s uninhibited performance.

The play has moments of intrigue and good direction but is ultimately memorable for its amateur elements.