Titus Andronicus is considered Shakespeare’s bloodiest play. The play runs at the Living Room through June 24.
A graphic but gripping revenge tale full of monsters performing unforgiving acts of murder, mutilation and mayhem.
They are not wrong.
But they are not monsters.
They are mothers and they are fathers.
They are soldiers, politicians, patriots and plebeians.
They are men. They are women. And they are children.
They are human beings.
And they are fallible.
The Living Room’s production of Titus Andronicus re-examines these monsters by holding an unforgiving mirror up to nature in order to understand our ugliness and our beauty simultaneously. The same impulse that wills us to love is the same impulse that wills us tohate. We are born. We die. And in between we either make magic, or we make a mess.
What happens to a child after it is born?
What happens after it dies?
What happens to a country when it falls?
What happens to a country when it conquers?
What happens to a mother when her son’s life is ruthlessly, unforgivably taken away right in front of her?
What happens to a father when acts of unthinkable, unimaginable atrocities befall his daughter?
How do you live when you’ve been struck so by these acts of cruelty, rage and revenge?
How do you survive? Or do you? Or do you even care?
Titus Adronicus tells a very human story.
It is a story riddled with violence, but tempered by wit and sex. A story of immeasurable loss and unfathomable sadness. A story of human error full of heartbreaking or hilarious near misses, total misses and direct hits. A story of politics, power, greed and desire. A story about a nation uncertain of itself, troubled by itself and even confused by itself, which, perhaps in turn, makes it a story about a country confronted by a kind of national anxiety. Which feels awfully familiar.
There is heart in this rarely produced Shakespeare play. And it is this theater and this ensemble’s mission to discover it, understand it and share it.
Oh, and there’s band.
Adapted and Directed by Kyle Hatley
The original score is composed and performed by Eryn Bates Preston.
Starring Mark Robbins as Titus
Mindy McCrary, Matt Weiss, Forrest Attaway, Daria LeGrand, Taylor St. John, Rufus Burns, Chris Roady, Paul Burns, Kyle Dyck, Tim Ahlenius, Donovan Kidd, Alan Tilson, Nathan Bovos, Tyler Hammond, Coleman Crenshaw, Noel Collins, Patrick Rippeto, Bradley Thomas, Lucas Piercy, Matt McAndrews, Bob Linebarger, Sean Hogge, Eryn Bates Preston, Sarah Geoke, Ben Husmann, and Kate O’Neill.
Lighting Design by Moose Kimball
Poster image by Tyson Schroeder
