December 17, 2011
Brad - A
Chelsea - A+
So, I can't even wait to explain this play. Just to sneak peak it, there were signs that said "this play has excessive blood and gore, not meant for small children" but let me start for the beginning. Ok, so we went to New York for truly 36 hours. We drove in Saturday morning to see FOUR plays and left Sunday night at 11pm (yep, back to DC at 3am I won't even touch on the level of tired or political debates that came out of us around 2am). So, this was play number 2 of the weekend. We went to dinner and did some research...
Serious research! I nerdily (I think that's a word, Brad would kill me for the madeupness of that) printed off what each was about and how it has affected our culture. Here is what we learned. Titus Andronicus is considered the red headed step child of the Shakespearian works. Some have tried to get it taken out of his canon and others have doubted that Shakespeare even wrote it. Personally, I think it is badass and Shakespeare (or De Vere) had an angry Mean Girls moment and wrote the craziest, angriest thing ever!
Here is the plot: Titus Andronicus is a war hero. He comes back from war with the Queen of the Goths and her 2 sons as prisoners. He comes home to 2 sons of the emperor fighting over who should be emperor since their dad died. People say "wait a minute Titus, you are awesome, you should be emperor!" Titus, because he's awesome, says "no no, I back the emperor's son Saturninus" so Saturninus (who had an awesome jerk from high school hair swoop) said sweet and makes the Queen of the Goths his wife! Now that the queen of the Goths is free and powerful, she declares revenge on Titus for capturing her and killing her other sons. So, here is where the crazy begins...Her son's rape Titus' daughter, cut off her hands and cut out her tongue. Then they kill her fiance and frame Titus' sons for it. She sends a man to Titus and says that she will give him his sons if he would cut off his hand as a sacrifice. He does and she "give" him his sons heads in repayment. Titus is peeeeved! He vows revenges, tricks the queen into sending over her sons, kills them, and feeds them to the queen in a secret dinner! It ends with everyone dead.
So, you are rushing out to see it right?
But, I LOVED it. I know that seems morbid and crazy but it was so well done! First, the actors were amazing. Thank goodness this followed Twelfth Night! It was set in nowadays time but it was also really artsy so they didn't try to make it look realistic that everyone died. Instead they used BUCKETS of blood (seriously, for a part people had on ponchos) it was just so over done that you really felt the story. The set was also super interesting. When the play started there was nothing on stage but a stack of wood boards. Which seems wierd but throughout the story they used the boards as tables, pits, pictures, names and placed them all over the stage. It turned out really cool and by the end it was chaos of boards. I snuck a picture:
It does it no justice. It was awesome. I spent half the show with my hand over my mouth and I left with this bad and good sense of vengeance and shock. It definitely held your attention and the Shakespeare I expected from Shakespeare in Love was the flowery, wordy, sap so it was really interested to see this crazy side! I mean a woman ate a pie of her sons! When can you say that was your Saturday night?
Chelsea
First of all, using made-up words is OK; Shakespeare (whoever he was) probably made up more new words than anyone!
ReplyDeleteRegarding Titus Andronicus, Kenji Yoshino has an interesting take on it in his book, "A Thousand Times More Fair." The play, he says, is about blood feuds, where two families keep seeking revenge on each other for wrongs done to their loved ones, but it shows that people have selective memories about how the feud got started. Titus feels he has a right to take vengeance on Tamora, Queen of the Goths, for what she did to Titus's daughter, but he overlooks the fact that the play began with Titus sacrificing Tamora's son despite Tamora's eloquent pleading for his life. From her viewpoint, she is justified in seeking revenge on Titus's family because of what Titus did to her son.
Yoshino says that the play demonstrates how we need the rule of law to step in and break such cycles of vengeance that would otherwise destroy society. Yoshino draws some parallels about how nations today seek revenge on others while forgetting their own, much earlier, role in instigating the conflict.
Brad, thanks for referring to me as an "expert Oxfordian," but even more for calling me a good friend.
Tom
Tom!
ReplyDeleteAnd you just proved your expertise! I really appreciate that interpretation of Titus because, in our minimal background research before seeing Titus, it seemed like everyone wrote it off, some even challenging its place in the Shakespeare cannon. But Chelsea and I really enjoyed it! Yes, it is dark; but it is stirring.
Feel free to smarten up (my turn to make up words) our little blog with your expertise any time you'd like!
Brad-icus