TITUS ANDRONICUS by William Shakespeare (Shakespeare in High Park/Cana dian Stage). At the High Park Amphitheatre (1873 Bloor West). Runs to August 31. Pwyc ($20 sugg). 416-368-3110, canadianstage.com. See listings. Rating: NNNN
Playing in rep with the comedy As You Like It, Titus Andronicus fills the dark, tragic side of Canadian Stage’s summer Shakespeare slate, providing thrills, chills and lots of gore.
In Shakespeare’s earliest known tragedy, Titus (Sean Dixon), a veteran Roman general, descends into a bloody, revenge feud with Tamora (Shauna Black), queen of the recently vanquished Goths and now the wife of new emperor Saturninus (James Graham).
Setting a tone similar to Ker Wells’s macabre Macbeth last season, director Keira Loughran combines ancient Roman and imperial Japanese aesthetics in a surprisingly coherent fantasy world where dagger duels give way to samurai sword fights. Costumes and props conform to a strict red, black, and brown palette – a striking and sinister visual counterpart to the play’s bleak string of murders and mutilations.
To deal with the story’s gouging, hacking, stabbing and slicing, Loughran uses red string, ribbon and fabric in place of the buckets of fake blood that would otherwise be required. At first this may seem like a cop-out to blunt the extreme horrors, but the colour alone disturbs all the same.
Dixon conveys Titus’s descent into anguish and madness, adding a subtle wryness to certain lines as things unravel. But the most memorable performance is Beau Dixon’s as Aaron, the Gothic queen’s hulking love slave. Near the beginning of the show he delivers an incantation, getting the audience to provide an ominous rhythmic clap as he recites the spell, walking wide-eyed through the crowd. It’s a delightfully unsettling set-up for the courtly carnage to come.
