Blood on our doorstep Essay Example For Students

Blood on our doorstep Essay Once upon a time, Titus Andronicus, with its limb-lopping, progeny-cooking savagery, seemed a jokean Elizabethan revenge extravaganza so far off the deep end it was laughable. But no more. Seeing director Julie Taymors Titus at New Yorks Theatre for a New Audience in March, the day before a trip to Cambodia and just after visiting an art exhibit from Sarajevo, I may have been especially primed for the productions message. But to anyone awake in this century, Taymors point is clear: Shakespeares ultimate paradigm of inhumanity has become our world. And, moreover, we devour such brutality for entertainment. Boasting one of Shakespeares messiest and least familiar plots, Titus starts right out with gore: Titus, Romes great general, returning victorious from a 10-year war against the Goths to an adoring crowd, orders the Goth queen Tamoras eldest son burned and hacked to pieces in reprisal for Romes slain warriors. He declines the peoples offer to make him emperor, relinquishing the crown to Saturninus, sleazy son of the former ruler. Saturninus instantly demands his brothers betrothed, Tituss daughter Lavinia, in marriagethen, after Titus slays his own son for trying to prevent this rape, Saturninus loses interest in Lavinia, takes up with Tamora and declares Titus his enemy. By now, the scent of blood is in the water. Tamoras sons proceed to kill Saturninuss brother, then rape and brutally maim Lavinia, cutting off her hands and tongue. The frenzy of vengeance builds until Titus, perhaps mad, bakes a pie containing Tamoras sons and serves it to their mother. After the predictable paroxysm of banquet slaughter, Tituss son Lucius remains among the corpses to pick up the pieces. In Shakespeares view, the time is back in joint, and a sadder, wiser next generation will carry on. Taymors interpretation of the bloody text is less sanguine. For her, the horror of Titus reflects not an aberration in history but the sum of our heritage. She presents the play in a blend of styles suggesting a compendium of Western culture from classical to punk. Armor-clad Roman soldiers in Act I greet bureaucrats sporting modern suits and ties. Back-lit classical columns double as pinball machines for Tamoras skinhead sons. Its all of a piece. More troubling, as Taymor makes clear, this dubious collection of values is the next generations patrimony. She frames the action with the plays two children: Tituss grandson, young Lucius, and the infant son of Tamora and the Moor Aaron, her illicit lover. The children are minor characters in Shakespeares text. In this production, they are the point. A boy playing war When the curtain rises, a boy wearing a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers (and a paperbag mask over his head) plays war at a kitchen table. As air-raid sirens blare, he bashes soldiers together, douses them with ketchup and mustard and then, increasingly frantic, hides under the table. That game over, he moves to the side of the stage to observe the next battle entertainment: the play of Titus Andronicus. A silent acolyte, the boy takes the generals sword and helmet, hands him a towel, removes the shroud covering the dead Roman soldiers. Halfway though, he enters the main story in the character of young Lucius, and then remains on stage through the final massacre, quietly watching. And learning. Meanwhile, Tamoras infanthis mother already butchered and his father soon to be tortured to deathis placed on the banquet table, amid the remains of dinner and the diners, in a tiny coffin. So, in Taymors version, Lucius does not honor his promise to spare his enemys child after all. The last sounds we hear as the lights go down are infants wailingand the screeching barks of birds of prey. .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3 , .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3 .postImageUrl , .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3 , .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3:hover , .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3:visited , .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3:active { border:0!important; } .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3:active , .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3 .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u8e69d75e104cb390749d31fb788e6ac3:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Henry Woronicz: in the rain with Oregon's own Renaissance man EssayWhat makes this vision all the more disturbing is that it shows people harvesting horror not to understand it, but as a diversion. Atrocity can make for tantalizing theatre. Taymor underscores this irony, playing on the idea that her Titus is an example, as well as an expose, of savagery as entertainment. She frames the normally open St. Clements performance space with a bright gold proscenium arch closed by a red velvet curtain. When the curtain rises, its immediately echoed by the red formica table on which young Lucius plays war gamesmore slaughter as recreation. As the carnage builds, additional gold fr ames with red curtains descend from the flies or are carried onto the stage to reveal nightmare images, wordless evocations of the main action: a dismembered body, gasping its final breaths; Lavinia wearing a deers head being ravished by Tamoras sons, who have tiger bodies. Two weird clownsa blubbery henchman and a trench-coated spookpresent these attractions with the air of sideshow barkers. Taymors interpretation of the bloody text is less sanguine. For her, the horror of Titus reflects not an aberration in history but the sum of our heritage. She presents the play in a blend of styles suggesting a compendium of Western culture from classical to punk. Armor-clad Roman soldiers in Act I greet bureaucrats sporting modern suits and ties. Back-lit classical columns double as pinball machines for Tamoras skinhead sons. Its all of a piece. More troubling, as Taymor makes clear, this dubious collection of values is the next generations patrimony. She frames the action with the plays two children: Tituss grandson, young Lucius, and the infant son of Tamora and the Moor Aaron, her illicit lover. The children are minor characters in Shakespeares text. In this production, they are the point. A boy playing war When the curtain rises, a boy wearing a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers (and a paperbag mask over his head) plays war at a kitchen table. As air-raid sirens blare, he bashes soldiers together, douses them with ketchup and mustard and then, increasingly frantic, hides under the table. That game over, he moves to the side of the stage to observe the next battle entertainment: the play of Titus Andronicus. A silent acolyte, the boy takes the generals sword and helmet, hands him a towel, removes the shroud covering the dead Roman soldiers. Halfway though, he enters the main story in the character of young Lucius, and then remains on stage through the final massacre, quietly watching. And learning. Meanwhile, Tamoras infanthis mother already butchered and his father soon to be tortured to deathis placed on the banquet table, amid the remains of dinner and the diners, in a tiny coffin. So, in Taymors version, Lucius does not honor his promise to spare his enemys child after all. The last sounds we hear as the lights go down are infants wailingand the screeching barks of birds of prey. What makes this vision all the more disturbing is that it shows people harvesting horror not to understand it, but as a diversion. Atrocity can make for tantalizing theatre. Taymor underscores this irony, playing on the idea that her Titus is an example, as well as an expose, of savagery as entertainment. She frames the normally open St. Clements performance space with a bright gold proscenium arch closed by a red velvet curtain. When the curtain rises, its immediately echoed by the red formica table on which young Lucius plays war gamesmore slaughter as recreation. As the carnage builds, additional gold frames with red curtains descend from the flies or are carried onto the stage to reveal nightmare images, wordless evocations of the main action: a dismembered body, gasping its final breaths; Lavinia wearing a deers head being ravished by Tamoras sons, who have tiger bodies. Two weird clowns a blubbery henchman and a trench-coated spook present these attractions with the air of side show barkers.