{"id":7381,"date":"2018-07-26T07:59:12","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T11:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7381"},"modified":"2018-08-21T07:01:17","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T11:01:17","slug":"titus-andronicus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7381","title":{"rendered":"Titus Andronicus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Titus

Robberson, Cuccioli, & Cromer; photo: Jerry Dahlia<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cA society drowning in violence and seemingly bereft of civil thought or action\u201d is how the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey<\/a> describes the setting for Shakespeare\u2019s bloodiest play, now in a riveting new production, directed by Brian B. Crowe, through August 5. First performed January 24, 1594, it was one of the revenge dramas so popular among Elizabethan audiences and fans of the Death Wish<\/em> franchise. Here, the desire for revenge trumps every other human feeling, with no possibility of compromise or negotiation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s well worth seeing, not just because the opportunity comes about so rarely and not just because of Shakespeare\u2019s thought-provoking content, but also because of the high quality of this production. The acting and production values are top-notch.<\/p>\n

The title character (played by Bruce Cromer) returns to Rome a hero after his conquest of the Goths. His chained prisoners comprise their sultry queen Tamora (Vanessa Morosco), her three sons, and her advisor, a moor (Chris White). When Titus arrives, Roman brothers Saturninus (Benjamin Eakeley) and Bassianus (Oliver Archibald) are vying to replace their late father, the emperor. Given the opportunity to choose between them, Titus chooses Saturninus, who proceeds to claim his brother\u2019s betrothed, Titus\u2019s daughter Lavinia (Fiona Robberson). Skirmishes break out, but Lavinia and Bassianus flee.<\/p>\n

Two of Titus\u2019s sons were killed in the war, and the remaining sons demand the sacrifice of the Goth queen Tamora\u2019s eldest son, despite her desperate pleas. Though she speaks honeyed words to Saturninus, her desire for revenge against Titus and all his children is clear.<\/p>\n

The moor connives with Tamora\u2019s remaining sons (Torsten Johnson and Quentin McCuiston) to kill Lavinia\u2019s new husband, ravish her, and, so that she can\u2019t reveal their identity, cut off her hands and cut out her tongue. Titus has lost five sons in the play so far, and his last son Lucius (Clark Scott Carmichael) is banished. He is devastated to see the wreck of his daughter. Only the counsel and forbearance of his brother Marcus (Robert Cuccioli) saves him from total madness.<\/p>\n

Near the end of the play is a speech by Marcus that for me was the most relevant to politics in our own time: \u201cO! let me teach you how to knit again this scatter\u2019d corn into one united sheaf, these broken limbs again into one body; lest Rome herself be bane unto herself, and she whom mighty kingdoms curtsy to, like a forlorn and desperate castaway, do shameful execution on herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fine performances of Cromer as Titus, Cuccioni as Marcus, Morosco as Tamora, and her two reptilian sons (Johnson and McCuiston) were excellent. For me, though, the most moving performance came from Robberson, the handless, tongueless, young widow. And White delivers the moor with relish.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fun seeing such a luxuriously large principal cast\u201416 actors\u2014ably augmented by 11 members of the theater\u2019s 2018 Summer Professional Training Program in multiple roles.<\/p>\n

Dick Block created a memorable set, featuring giant swords and an enormous warrior\u2019s helmet, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey productions are hosted at Drew University in Madison, N.J. (easily reachable from NYC by train). For tickets, call the box office at 973-408-5600 or visit http:\/\/www.shakespearenj.org<\/a>. Note that STNJ offers special ticket pricing of $30 for theatergoers under age 30!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cA society drowning in violence and seemingly bereft of civil thought or action\u201d is how the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey describes the setting for Shakespeare\u2019s bloodiest play, now in a riveting new production, directed by Brian B. Crowe, through … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Titus Andronicus -Shakespeare's bloodiest play, rarely performed today, on stage in a stunning production.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[366,268,104,147,785],"tags":[678,197,553,1373,129],"class_list":["post-7381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drama","category-politics","category-the-morgue","category-theater","category-tragedy","tag-murder","tag-shakespeare","tag-shakespeare-theatre-of-new-jersey","tag-titus-andronicus","tag-wars-and-conflicts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1V3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7384,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7381\/revisions\/7384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}