Titus Andronicus: William Shakespeare RSC at the Swan, Stratford Upon AvonRuns until 07 June 2025, 5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: Roderick Dungate AD Performance, 17 May 2025.
Photo Credit: Marc Brenner.
Titus Andronicus: William Shakespeare
RSC at the Swan, Stratford Upon Avon
Runs until 07 June 2025
5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: Roderick Dungate.
AD Performance, 17 May 2025
“Another Production Demonstrates that the RSC is one of the World’s Greatest Theatre Companies.”
Titus Andronicus is usually considered rather a poor play; notable for its grotesque violence and little more of interests. This conclusion might be the result of too much emphasis on Shakespeare Study or possibly cultural snobbishness.
Director, Max Webster is having none of this. He has taken each moment of the play and asked himself: ‘How does this work?’ and then theatrically and intelligently examined it. In this he is massively aided by the huge skill and sensitivity of Simon Russell Beale (Andronicus) I have seen Andronicus several times; I have never been so genuinely moved by it, horrified, yes, but this production shows it to be mature and a true tragedy. More of this in a bit.
Sometimes you can tell from the opening one minute of a production that you are in for something special. And thus it is with this opening. It is clear, no frills, authoritative, for the most part, devoid of emotion – there are victory protocols, and they are there to be enacted dispassionately. The exception here is Tamora, Queen of the vanquished Goths, whose son is to be executed, and his body parts burned.
Following this, the story sets out upon its journey of revenges, cruelty, horror and pathos.
Beale is on top of his considerable form. When he speaks quickly, conveying the pressure of time, every word of the text is clearly heard. In the scene when he meets his daughter Lavinia after she has been horribly mutilated, Beale snatches our breath away. He demonstrates that low volume magnifies intensity; he and the whole team understand the power of silence, there is one kind of silence in the acting space and there is another, even stronger, in the auditorium.
Letty Thomas creates a powerful, Lavinia totally true whether speaking or mutely ripping our hearts apart later on. Wendy Kweh creates a fine Tamara, a woman to reckoned with, though her performance would be improved with better voice control when she is loud.
As a whole this is a strong ensemble company.
Let me return to the violence in the play, exemplified by Andronicus’s killing of Queen Tamara’s two sons. They are hung upside down on chains, Lavinia manoeuvres a bowl under them to catch their blood, Andronicus slits their throats. Such violence may seem grotesque to us, but it reflects the cruelty of punishment at the times and public pleasure in it; the punishment for treason, for instance, was public hanging, drawing, castrating and quartering. But let us, also, avoid cultural snobbery; we delight in such cruelty in modern films – there are many references to modern films in this production. And what about Sondheim’s greatest musical – a story of someone who bumps people off so his accomplice can bake them in pies? (I adore, by the by, Tamara’s defiant extra bite of her son-filled pie.) Such violent episodes are common tropes in our culture. Webster’s considerable achievement is to present them without judgement.
Matthew Herbert’s powerful, score adds to the whole; it is potentially intrusive but always kept skilfully under control, so it supports and never overwhelms and action.
Cast
Titus Andronicus – Simon Russell Beale
Marcia Andronicus – Emma Fielding
Saturninus – Joshua James
Lucius – Joel MacCormack
Lavinia – Letty Thomas
Bassianus – Ned Costello
Quintus – Thomas Josling
Nurse & a Goth – Sarita Oomeer
Martius & Messenger – Danny Collins
Young Lucius – Tristan Arthur/Anna Chester/George Gilchrist
Tamora – Wendy Kweh
Aaron – Natey Jones
Chiron – Marlowe Chan-Reeves
Demetrius – Jeremy Any Jones
Alarbus – Jerone Marsh-Reid
Creatives
Director – Max Webster
Sets & Costumes – Joanna Scotcher
Lighting – Lee Curran
Composer – Matthew Herbert
Sound – Tingying Dong
Audio Describers – Gethyn Edwards/Carolyn Smith