Titus Andronicus

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When William Shakespeare began writing for the stage, one of the popular genres in the playhouses was the revenge play. Famous examples that preceded him were Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy and Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, both rarely produced today. Just as rarely staged is Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, his first tragedy and his only Roman play that was not historical but entirely fictional. Possibly because it outdoes the others in violence, it has not been popular in recent years, offending modern sensibilities.

Red Bull Theater whose mission is to revive classic plays for contemporary audiences (particularly Elizabethan and Jacobean dramas and comedies) has chosen the seldom seen Titus Andronicus and artistic director Jesse Berger’s production is vigorous, muscular and effective. Since there is so much violence in our news and films today, it may be that we are able to sit through this blood bath at this time. (Of course, Shakespeare made use of this genre later in Hamlet whose body count is put at ten, but that play is of a more psychological and refined variety and less gory.) Performed in modern dress, in this production several of the roles have gender reversals in order to add more women to the cast, most particularly Titus’ brother the tribune Marcus who is now Marcia. There has been some trimming and rearranging which makes the play non-stop action.

In the title role, Patrick Page who demonstrated his classical training in his award-winning one-man show All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Created the Villain (2023-24) leads an excellent cast in this difficult play. Roman general Titus returning from the war with the Goths arrives home with prisoners Queen Tamora, her three sons and her secret lover, Aaron the Moor. Titus promptly kills one of Tamora’s sons to make up for the death of  his other sons during the war aside from the three that survived..

The emperor has just died, and his two sons quarrel over the succession. Claiming that Saturninus is the people’s choice, Titus invests him as emperor. In attempting to honor Titus and his family, the new emperor chooses Titus’ daughter Lavinia as his queen. Unfortunately, she is already betrothed to his brother Bassianus and this cannot be undone. Saturninus immediately chooses Tamora as his queen and she and her sons vow to get their revenge on Titus and his family. She advises Saturninus to pardon the Andronici family so that she can put her plan for revenge into operation.

During a royal hunt, Aaron persuades Tamora’s two remaining sons to kill Bassianus and rape Lavinia. To keep her from revealing her fate, they cut off her tongue and her hands. In the meantime, Aaron forges a letter which frames two of Titus’ three remaining sons for the murder of the king’s brother. Saturninus sentences them to death. Aaron then visits Titus and tells him that the emperor will spare his sons if Titus, his last son Lucius or his sister Marcia will cut off one of their hands and send it to the emperor. Though Lucius and Marcia are willing, Titus has his own hand cut off by Aaron and sent to Saturninus, only to find he has been tricked by Aaron when he is sent the heads of his sons and also his hand.

Titus’ fortunes reach their nadir when mutilated daughter Lavinia uses a stick held in her mouth to name her attackers, the emperor’s step-sons. Titus is now wound up enough to take his revenge on the Goths which includes murder and famously cannibalism in a surprise banquet for the guilty. Aaron’s downfall comes when Tamora gives birth to a biracial child proclaiming their adultery. The final scene includes the deaths of Tamora, Titus and Saturninus among others.

As Berger’s production plays all of this entirely straight, it cannot make up its mind if it is a satire, parody or comedy which would certainly be one way to play it today. However, his vigorous production includes copious amounts of blood some of which stays on the set for the rest of the performance. Berger’s often witty contemporary production includes cans of beer, track suits, camouflage outfits and a cook’s uniform for Titus’ banquet. Page’s resonant bass voice stands him in good stead as a commanding Titus whose stature seems to grow during the evening. McKinley Belcher III gives a much juicier performance here as Aaron the Moor than he did earlier this season in the title role of Theater for a New Audience’s production of Coriolanus. Olivia Reis makes an independent and outspoken Lavinia in the first half of the play but disappears in the second half as she has no more lines.

Some of the other actors have made problematic choices which seem to work in this context. Using Nero or Caligula as his model, Matthew Amendt’s Saturninus is a comic character, a narcissist who is more petulant and self-involved than philosophic. Francesca Faridany’s Tamora, Queen of the Goths, is rather low-key but makes her passions felt. On the other hand, as her sons Chiron and Demetrius, Jesse Aaronson and Adam Langdon play them as two viciously amoral frat boys which is exactly right.

The production team has worked astonishingly well together considering the story they have to tell. Beowulf Boritt’s unit set with its 12 gray columns straddles the centuries suggesting both Rome and our own time. The metal chairs and glass table establish the time period in the second half. The costumes by Emily Rebholz are contemporary but subdued enough to appear royal as well as war-like. As composer and co-sound designer, Adam Wernick (along with co-designer Shannon Slaton) occasionally includes songs from our own era which comment ironically on the action. The subtle lighting by Jiyoun Chang is always exactly right for each successive scene. Fight director and intimacy coordinator Rick Sordelet has his work cut out for him in this very violent play.

While Titus Andronicus is not for the squeamish, it has definite importance in Shakespeare’s canon showing us where he started, how he was influenced by his contemporaries, and how he developed later. Jesse Berger’s exciting and swiftly moving production is riveting at all times, not only keeping the energy up but making the play surprising as it develops. As we suspected from Patrick Page’s one-man Shakespeare play, he is an asset to any Elizabethan production and leads a compelling cast. This may not be your cup of tea but you will not be bored for a second, even though you may be startled or shocked.

Titus Andronicus (extended through May 3, 2026)

Red Bull Theater

The Pershing Square Signature Center’s Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre, 480 W. 42^nd Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, call 212-343-7394 or visit http://www.redbulltheater.com

Running time: two hours and 15 minutes including one intermission