Titus Andronicus comes with warning!
Feature by Lizzie Guilfoyle
FOLLOWING newspaper reports that several audience members fainted during a performance of Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre has issued a warning about the play’s “gruesome and bloody” content.
Titus Andronicus, part of the Globe’s 2006 season, The Edges of Rome, sees the general Titus Andronicus returning to Rome after a war with the Goths. With him, as prisoners of war, are the queen Tamora and her three sons.
However, when Titus not only sacrifices Tamora’a eldest son to appease the ghosts of his 21 dead sons but also refuses to accept the title of emperor, a terrible cycle of mutilation, rape and murder ensues.
According to Shakespeare’s stage directions, in one scene, Titus’ daughter Lavinia enters with “her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out, and ravished.”
And in order to create as dark and funereal setting as possible for Shakespeare’s earliest and most macabre tragedy, William Dudley designed a black roof for the open-air theatre . Read more
However, fainting is not unusual at the theatre but as a Globe spokesman explained, there has been “a higher level of fainting this year than we normally would experience”. Moreover, fainting usually occurs at the height of summer.
Titus Andronicus stars Douglas Hodge as Titus, Shaun Parkes as Aaron, Laura Rees as Lavinia, Geraldine Alexander as Tamora and Richard O’Callaghan as Marcus Andronicus.
Lucy Bailey directs. Read our review
Titus Andronicus continues until October 6, 2006.