When you arrive at a venue and are offered a plastic poncho and earplugs as you make your way into the theatre, you have an inkling that this production may be a little different. A bare arena stage surrounded by white curtains greets you, allowing the audience to be sat virtually on stage and witness at close quarters a ninety-minute onslaught of murder, rape, mutilation and cannibalism that is definitely not for the faint hearted.
Titus Andronicus is one of Shakespeare’s more problematic texts, indeed literary scholars have debated if he even wrote it at all. It fell out of favour during the 19th Century, its gory depiction of strong sexual themes making it unsuitable for the more gentrified theatre audiences of Victorian Britain. However, Cream Faced Loons are a company that love a challenge, their depiction of ‘King John’ in Manchester back in 2019 was both hilarious and memorable, and they have brought similar inventiveness to the staging of this production.
Director (and self-styled Head Loon) Abey Bradbury has adopted a high speed approach, managing to conflate over three hours of text into a rapid ninety minutes, expressing the essence of the storyline but inevitably losing some of the elegiac beauty along the way. This approach is a laudable one, brevity making the piece more accessible to a modern audience, but other less successful decisions served only to confuse and strain credulity.
The projection of the text onto the surrounding curtains served only to distract both cast and audience throughout, as well as point up glaring errors that cast members made in their recitation of lines on this opening night. The gender blind casting failed to demonstrate any discernible purpose and with the exception of Lavinia (Duncan Riches) added no nuance or revelation in its employment.
However, it was the inconsistent use of BSL signing throughout the performance that was the most baffling, some characters utilising it for entire speeches whilst others used it sparsely or not at all. Both myself and my companion (a signer herself) tried in vain to discern any pattern to this curious directorial decision to no avail, the lack of comprehensive use making it superfluous and counterproductive.
The most infamous scenes of this revenge tragedy were handled dexterously, the text projection being used to excellent effect as a descriptive tool with both the horrific off stage rape of Lavinia and in a similar vein during the murder of Demetrius and Chiron (Laura Crow & Matthew Khan). The eponymous Titus (Devane Boyd) showed real quality as the war leader driven to wreak bloody revenge, physically imposing in the small stage space he also demonstrated an unexpected softness in delivery that was welcome relief amidst the mayhem. The climax to this gorefest was watching Tamora (Solaya Sang) being force fed her children in a pie, a close range experience that ensured I won’t be visiting Greggs for a Steak Bake for a while!
Bloody mayhem and torture throughout ensure that by the conclusion Cream Faced Loons have assaulted all of your senses with a fast paced, frenetic and visceral interpretation, Shakespeare for the Tarantino generation.
Playing until 21st October, https://www.creamfacedloons.co.uk/whatson
Reviewer: Paul Wilcox
Reviewed: 17th October 2022
North West End UK Rating: ★★★