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| Charles Hubbel as Titus Andronicus |
The play opens with Saturninus and Bassianus, the sons of the recently deceased emperor of Rome, each arguing their case for succession. This plot element serves as a foil for Titus Andronicus, the titular general who returns home victorious with the Goth Queen Tamora and her sons in tow as prisoners. The trajectory of the play reveals itself in the first act Titus takes after burying his dead; ordering that the eldest Goth son, Alarbus, be offered up as a human sacrifice.*
Manipulation and treachery ensues when Titus proclaims that Saturninus shall be emperor. Saturninus, instead of repaying Titus with thanks, spurns Titus’ daughter Lavinia for empress, instead choosing the Goth queen Tamora. Tamora uses this elevation to set in motion her vengeance against Titus and the Romans for degrading her as a prisoner, setting the stage for murder, rape, and the aforementioned cannibalism.
Charles Hubbel plays his Titus Andronicus like a riding crop. His tall, gaunt stature belie a muscularity that brings some the best physical moments of the show and his almost preternaturally skeletal face bears the comportment of someone who has seen and inflicted enough carnage in its time. The intransigence of will that he displays humanizes the flawed Titus and draws in the audiences’ empathy. In various turns there were the inklings of King Lear and in an inspired scene where Tamora plots with her masked sons, Hamlet and his madness make their first showings. Hubbel shows that he can still tell a hawk from a handsaw and the vengeful twist of Titus’ knife is beautifully dramatized by director Paul von Stoetzel and fight choreographer Don Preston.
As Tamora, Jean Salo brings a physicality to her corruption and pendulums wonderfully from sweet and seductive to tyrannical; the appearance of a matron with the heart of a fiend. Jesse Corder and Matt Spring play Chiron and Demetrius, the Goth sons whose brute impulse cause much of the carnage with Derek Washington’s plotting Moor, Aaron. Corder and Spring switch off the roles night-by-night, and they have developed a rapport of manic depravity. You can almost see them fighting with the dogs for a bone.
There are moments that translate to humor, both in the text and the staging, which are a welcome respite in a show that sometimes suffers from over-declamation and conventional group movement. The live music is a step up from a record of trumpet blasts, but the composition often wavers between melancholy and hokey.
However, the ambition of the show is not to be underestimated and von Stoetzel and Cromulent are to be commended. Uneveness aside, the moments of insanity, viciousness and bloody murder are enthralling and exhilarating. When you can rack up 4 corpses in 20 seconds and get a laugh, you’re on the right twisted trail.
*[Full Disclosure: This review comes from both sides of the fourth wall. After initially agreeing to play Alarbus, circumstances beyond my control forced me to leave the production. However, circumstances even further beyond my control had me stand in to be hacked to pieces for the first weekend. Isn’t that just the way life is sometimes?]
Titus Andronicus runs January 17-21, 25-27 and 31- February 2. Showtime is 7pm. Tickets are $15, $12 for students, seniors and Fringe buttons. Bedlam Theatre is at 1501 S. 6th St on the West Bank, Minneapolis. Phone 612-338-9817 for reservations and inquiries. Happy hour food and drinks are available 4-7 p.m.
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Location Info:
Bedlam Theatre
Artist Info: Cromulent Shakespeare Company
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