This gothic production captures the cruelty of this lesser known work by Shakespeare
When I talked to a group of drama students at the Tower Theatre last night, it appeared that very few of them had ever heard or read about this play. Known for its limited popularity but unbound cruelty and darkness, Titus Andronicus is indeed one of the most problematic and difficult Shakespearean plays to appropriate. Directed by Gavin McAlinden and performed by his acting company Acting Gymnasium, this gothic production at the Tower Theatre captures the play’s cruel nature but leaves some room for improvement.
The cast’s enunciation and diction could certainly be improved. Perhaps the need to keep the entire play within a two-hour timeframe (including a 15-20 minute interval) forced most lines to be read out hurriedly, lacking appropriate tempo and punctuation. The overall pace felt too hasty, as if the cast was eager to finish their lines quickly and move to the next scene, again and again. It reminded me of finishing off performance tasks assigned by high school drama teacher, with little attention paid to stresses, vowels or rhythm. It is unclear whether this is a director’s choice or not, but for sure it is a pity for fans of Shakespeare’s language.
The haste of the production also leaves its agenda quite vague and bizarre, swinging in-between a showy, theatrical Elizabethan style and a clear, mature Stanislavskian approach. For instance, Michael Claff’s performance of the title character starts off brutal, decisive, and resolute, then he becomes increasingly humble, constantly kneeling down and begging pardon from Saturninus (Eduardo Gispert), the Roman emperor he created. In the last bit of the play, this wronged man feigned his madness as a naked jazz-indulged cook. All those images seemed more like fragments of a shattered mirror, unable to reflect either a Titus shares his perspective with the audience, or a Titus driven by a deep psychological drive.
The treatment of Aaron’s (Aryan Chavda) soliloquies also exemplified this issue of enunciation, easily letting go the complexity of this malicious and unapologetic villain, who is at the same time a valiant protective father. Chavda did capture Aaron’s lustful nature in his flirting interactions with Tamora (Melanie Carss), but struggled to convey the character’s deep complexity and wider range of emotions in Aaron’s soliloquies, merely presenting a superficial cynicism and flippancy. The lack of direct audience address also made Aaron less penetrable. However, one exception is Lucy Williams as a female Marcus. She not only brought precision and clarity of Marcus’s speeches that pleased the ear, but also portrayed a loyal and empathetic Marcus, showing a stronger bond of kinship as well as a hint of motherhood. This creates an interesting contrast with Tamora, the real mother in the play who lacks any semblance of motherhood.
Despite these issues, the production did have some interesting scenes. For instance, I quite like the portrayals of Demetrius (Ian Russell) and Chiron (Paul Higginson) – lustful but stupidly funny. The comparison of Chiron’s sword to his penis, though not original, was witty. With a depiction of an extremely humble and fragile Titus, this production also rendered me to ponder upon the motif of ceding power as a noble deed, as well as its not-so-noble causal effect and tragic nature.