Review: Haven Theatre Stages a Horror Movie Called Titus Andronicus
Interesting facts about Titus Andronicus
Shakespeare’s other Roman plays (Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Antony and Cleopatra) are based on historical figures but Titus is totally fiction. The punk rock band Titus Andronicus, formed in 2005 in New Jersey, acknowledges its debt to the playwright in its band name and lyrics to “Titus Andronicus Forever,” in which the line, ”The enemy is everywhere” is repeated over and over. The 2019 Broadway play, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus by Taylor Mac featured Nathan Lane as Gary, a trainee working with the maid to clean up the bodies after the bloody finale. The character Gary is apparently patterned after the Clown in the original Titus. New York Times reviewer Jesse Green definitely didn’t hate the play, saying it was “fabulous and bedraggled: a defiant and beautiful mess.” I deeply regret missing this play. Scholar Harold Bloom (Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human) says Shakespeare was mocking other playwrights and that the play was “wildly popular” among audiences at the time. Bloom calls Titus “an explosion of rancid irony carried well past the limits of parody. Nothing else by Shakespeare is so sublimely lunatic.” Could the cut-em-up-and-turn-em-into pie theme of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street be attributed to the influence of Shakespeare’s culinary treats? Similar treats are served in a 1973 film, Theater of Blood. My three-star rating is for the quality of the performance and the inventiveness of the director and cast. Obviously, if you are squeamish about scenes of violence and rampant bloodshed, this is not the play for you. For you, this play gets one star (not recommended). Titus Andronicus by Haven Theatre continues at the Den Theatre mainstage through March 5. Tickets are $35 for performances Thursday-Sunday. Running time is three hours including one intermission.Nancy S Bishop
Nancy S. Bishop is publisher and Stages editor of Third Coast Review. She’s a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a 2014 Fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. You can read her personal writing on pop culture at nancybishopsjournal.com, and follow her on Twitter @nsbishop. She also writes about film, books, art, architecture and design.