Titus Andronicus
Jun. 25th, 2006 08:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrphThat was impressive.
So, yesterday I went to see the Yukio Ninagawa production of Titus Andronicus, which was part of the RSC's 'Complete Works' season.
Very impressive, just a little bit disturbing, occasionally funny. I won't attempt a point-by-point review, but here are a few of the things that caught my attention...
Firstly, they didn't actually have a stage curtain. When we took our seats, fifteen minutes before the play started, the cast were already onstage - pacing about and dressing in their armour, testing the balance of swords or talking to some of the backstage staff. At this point the stage was empty of most of the scenery - just costume racks and white walls, with the labels and axes of a graph projected on them.
(Occasionally one of the cast would jump offstage and walk up an aisle - one barbarian soldier, who already seemed to be in character, stopped to grin approvingly and point out his photo in someone's programme)
All of which was deliberate - setting the scene and counting down to the start of the action, with loudspeaker announcements for "all cast on stage" and "bring out the wolf" as well as the usual "the play starts in five minutes, please take your seats"...
As for the play itself, it was full of powerful imagery. I understand that the Globe's version of Titus has buckets of blood - this one just had red threads, usually against white clothing, to symbolise blood and severed limbs. Aside from the soldiers and the Goths, almost everyone wore white.
The Goths, our villains, were colour coded. Tamora, queen of goths, in white when being a 'good Roman' - in black when plotting other things. Her two surviving sons (Chiron and Demetrius) dressed in green and blue. Aaron, Tamora's lover, was definitely the most visually striking character - tattooed and dressed all in red, with a long coat worn over a bare chest.
As for the most memorable moment... there are a few to choose from.
Aaron sitting on the great plinth, beneath a statue of the wolf suckling Romulus and Remus. Sword in one hand. Baby cradled by the other. Everyone else keeping their distance.
Chiron and Demetrius, portrayed as dull-witted comedy thugs for much of the play, showing their true colours. Naked except for threads of other people's blood, taunting a maimed Lavinia as she stumbles through the forest.
...and Tamora, a little earlier, listening to the newly-widowed Lavinia's pleas for a merciful death and coldly dismissing them, turning Lavinia over to her sons with a casual "So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee"...
Strong stuff. And very well presented.
So, yesterday I went to see the Yukio Ninagawa production of Titus Andronicus, which was part of the RSC's 'Complete Works' season.
Very impressive, just a little bit disturbing, occasionally funny. I won't attempt a point-by-point review, but here are a few of the things that caught my attention...
Firstly, they didn't actually have a stage curtain. When we took our seats, fifteen minutes before the play started, the cast were already onstage - pacing about and dressing in their armour, testing the balance of swords or talking to some of the backstage staff. At this point the stage was empty of most of the scenery - just costume racks and white walls, with the labels and axes of a graph projected on them.
(Occasionally one of the cast would jump offstage and walk up an aisle - one barbarian soldier, who already seemed to be in character, stopped to grin approvingly and point out his photo in someone's programme)
All of which was deliberate - setting the scene and counting down to the start of the action, with loudspeaker announcements for "all cast on stage" and "bring out the wolf" as well as the usual "the play starts in five minutes, please take your seats"...
As for the play itself, it was full of powerful imagery. I understand that the Globe's version of Titus has buckets of blood - this one just had red threads, usually against white clothing, to symbolise blood and severed limbs. Aside from the soldiers and the Goths, almost everyone wore white.
The Goths, our villains, were colour coded. Tamora, queen of goths, in white when being a 'good Roman' - in black when plotting other things. Her two surviving sons (Chiron and Demetrius) dressed in green and blue. Aaron, Tamora's lover, was definitely the most visually striking character - tattooed and dressed all in red, with a long coat worn over a bare chest.
As for the most memorable moment... there are a few to choose from.
Aaron sitting on the great plinth, beneath a statue of the wolf suckling Romulus and Remus. Sword in one hand. Baby cradled by the other. Everyone else keeping their distance.
Chiron and Demetrius, portrayed as dull-witted comedy thugs for much of the play, showing their true colours. Naked except for threads of other people's blood, taunting a maimed Lavinia as she stumbles through the forest.
...and Tamora, a little earlier, listening to the newly-widowed Lavinia's pleas for a merciful death and coldly dismissing them, turning Lavinia over to her sons with a casual "So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee"...
Strong stuff. And very well presented.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-25 07:29 pm (UTC)I'm not sure I'm entirely convinced by the foreign language theatre with surtitles (sic, little screens at either side of the stage showing translations). I found it nigh on impossible to both watch and read the surtitles; something I've never struggled with when watching foreign films.
Still, visually striking and well worth seeing!
no subject
Date: 2006-06-25 07:43 pm (UTC)Does sound a fabulous production though.
Soph
no subject
Date: 2006-06-25 09:07 pm (UTC)Especially Lavinia.