Titus Andronicus, Defiant Theatre, at the Viaduct Theater, and Titus Andronicus, Theatre o’ th’ Absurd, at the Performance Loft. Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy is a catalog of cruelty: much-wronged Roman general Titus takes his revenge against the effete Emperor Saturnius and his vicious spouse, Tamora. The ensuing atrocities–amputations, decapitations, mutilation, rape, infanticide, cannibalism–recall a Hollywood pukefest. Watching Titus Andronicus is like swimming through a sewer. Nor does the poetry save the night.
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Theatre o’ th’ Absurd mines Titus Andronicus for its crazy take on humanity, not its bloody excess. But unfortunately Jovan D. Mihailovic’s strident three-hour staging makes the action seem more arbitrary than absurd: here the language takes its own beating. Speeches are pounced upon rather than delivered passionately, and the Performance Loft’s poor acoustics don’t help the ensemble’s poor projection and mush-mouthed diction.
