TITUS ANDRONICUS: till 7 November
TITUS ANDRONICUS: William Shakespeare
RSC: Main House
Tkts: 0870 609 1110
Runs: 3h 20m, one interval, till 7 November
Review: Rod Dungate 23 September 2003
An extraordinary production: not a great play, but dark and foreboding: a play of our times
Bill Alexander in this dignified production makes us take the play seriously. ANDRONICUS does not come out of it as a great play but as a play that disturbs not by its depiction of cruelty but by its exploration of our ability to inflict cruelty.
Over the years Bill Alexander has shown himself to be one of our most intelligent and sensitive directors: recent productions of WAY OF THE WORLD (Birmingham Rep), Bryony Lavery's FROZEN (Birmingham Rep and National) and EARNEST (Northampton) reveal him to be a director who can work in a wide range of styles. He may lack the strutting quality of some of our noisier gurus (thank goodness) but is more than their equal in theatrical intelligence. He has brought all this to bear on this strange and dark play: he has also brought together a winning team of Tim Mitchell (lighting) and Ruari Murchison (design) who makes a welcome RSC debut.
The story. Titus Andronicus returns to Rome after successfully vanquishing the Goths. He declines to become Emperor nominating Saturninus. Saturninus marries Goth prisoner-queen Tamora whose son has been executed by Andronicus. She wreaks her revenge on Andronicus' family. Andronicus wreaks his revenge on her (famously by feeding her sons to her in a pie.)
Murchison's designs merge three worlds Elizabethan representation of Roman, ancient pagan and modern. Alexander (with team) heightens the action in the opening scenes to almost operatic heights. The effect is distanced, ritualistic and in the spare, almost colourless settings, disturbing and full of foreboding. Alexander plays down the later scenes of violence and they become (against the opening) more real. I was uncomfortable with passages of direct address to begin with, but as the play moves on I came to see that we are complicit in this violence. The production dares us to continue being merely onlookers to the atrocities in the world today: Alexander seems to be saying 'You can't just sit back and watch it you are part of it, you must do something about it'. (Now there's a message for our times.)
Tim Mitchell's lighting with the 'curtain of light' I've seem him use before does more than illuminate the play. It carries with it a text of its own: it illuminates and complements the production.
The first half is quite magnificent. Even though it shows up parts of the play that are (now?) faintly ridiculous. Andronicus' brother Marcus, finding his niece with hands chopped off and tongue cut out says 'What stern ungentle hands/ Hath lopped and hewed and made thy body bare?' and then goes on for another 40 lines before he actually does anything. The second half of the play takes a real dive a bit of judicious cutting might have helped but comes back magnificently in the final straight. With some welcome, quite delicious, comedic touches.
Some marvellous acting too. David Bradley's Titus Andronicus is totally believable. He enters the play weary from the wars, he almost forces the words out. He moves step by step into the tragedy, never failing to take us with him. At the point at which we think he would break he climbs back from the depths. Somehow Bradley makes Andronicus' actions reasonable. No mean feat. Eve Myles plays the contrast in Lavinia to great effect: first so light she appears to float above the acting space, after her torture and mutilation deeply moving. I particularly like her first appearance after her torture, she is more or less silent throughout Marcus's long speech: but at the end when he takes her in his arms she weeps and groans. It's as if his kindness melts her and at last she feels her pain: we feel it with her.
Ian Gelder's Marcus (Titus's brother) breathes 3D humanity into this formal character. Maureen Beattie's Tamora is wonderfully feisty: a baddie (not without cause) we love to hate. John Lloyd Fillingham (Saturninus) brings off the feat of stripping his character of power by allowing him no vocal or physical control while he, as an actor, controls both to great effect.
Romans
Saturninus: John Lloyd Fillingham
Bassianus: Fergus O'Donnell
Titus Andronicus: David Bradley
Marcus Andronicus: Ian Gelder
Lucius: Bradley Freegard
Quintus: Edmund Moriarty
Martius: Branwell Donaghey
Lavinia: Eve Myles
Young Lucius: Christopher Duncan
Publius: Rob Wynn
Caius: John Killoran
Sempronius: Andrew Macbean
Aemilius: Michael G Jones
Nurse: Shereen Ibrahim
Clown: Nicolas Tennant
Messenger: Javone Prince
Roman Lady: Lynsey Beauchamp
Roman Senator: Michael G Jones
Goths
Tamora: Maureen Beattie
Alarbus: Rob Wynn
Demetrius: Martin Hutson
Chiron: Daniel Brocklebank
Aron: Joe Dixon
Goth Leader: Edmund Moriarty
Goth Leader: Javone Prince
Goth Leader: Shereen Ibrahim
Goth Soldier: Branwell Donaghey
Director: Bill Alexander
Design: Ruari Murchison#
Lighting: Tim Mitchell
Music: Jonathan Goldstein
Sound: David Tinson
Music Director: Michael Tubbs
Assistant Directors: Tom Wright/ Ellie Jones
Fights: Malcolm Ransom
Voice: Andrew Wade and Lyn Darnley
2003-09-24 15:00:23