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Regional Reviews: St. Louis Titus Andronicus Also see Richard's reviews of Uncle Vanya: Valiantly Accepting Next Year's Agony and Hot for T-Rex
Chad Little starts out as a calm, soldierly general Titus, and stays that way through a lot of the play. But he's undeniably very plausible as a life-long warrior for Rome, having just returned from a lengthy campaign. And, like Shakespeare's Richard II, right off the bat, he's called to settle a dispute between two noblemen. Later, just like poor King Richard II, this attempt at calming the waters only proves to be his undoing. (Titus Andronicus actually predates Richard II by at least a couple of years, first staged somewhere around 1590.) Anyway, Titus quickly settles that dispute, declaring Saturninus (the splendid Roger Erb) to be the new Roman emperor, but then, Saturninus goes and marries Tamora, because she's so darned hot, freshly delivered in chains as the spoils of war. And that's where everything goes wrong for Titus. But, setting plot aside for a moment, there's plenty of rationale for a low-key star characterization, in all kinds of drama—after all, you know you're going to be stuck with a leading man or lady for the whole show, so it can be good (for variety's sake) to only minimally occupy the center, and to rely on the rest of the cast (one by one) to distract the audience with their own color. And, as you almost certainly know, the dominant hue in Titus Andronicus is blood red—as violence erupts like clockwork, especially in act one. Meanwhile, Tamora is cloaked in great triangles of shadowy black, seeming to influence Saturninus to behave in an increasingly haughty manner. And, in an obviously conscious decision on the part of the production team, this Titus is dressed in very restrained beige nearly all the way through. The thoughtful costumes are by Zahrah Agha. Tom Kopp directs, and all of his work leads to a remarkable sense of catharsis at the end: the air seems especially clear and calm, once it's all over. (Susan Kopp, the director's wife, composed an evocative score that runs under much of the action). Chris LaBanca is outstanding as Titus' loyal brother Marcus, and Darrious Varner is increasingly enjoyable as Aaron, the Moor who works in secret with Tamora. Mr. Varner gets a great, classic "Shakespeare-style" scene late in the show (which runs a bit under two hours), where Aaron is literally standing on the gibbet, awaiting his own execution, and somehow must turn it all around in his favor at the last possible moment. You can probably see what's coming, if you've seen much Shakespeare. But I couldn't help grinning as I watched a more-or-less undaunted Mr. Varner re-work the formula, in which the wicked Aaron tries to change people's minds with one big clever, life-or-death speech. It's something we see repeatedly in Richard III (which apparently came soon after Titus, in 1592): this glorious, brash sort of bargaining, with one's back against the wall. Also on the shady side of the street here are Ted Drury and Michael Pierce as Tamora's nefarious sons, with more solid work (as always) from Erik Kuhn, Chuck Winning, Maxwell Knocke, Megan Wiegert, and Brian Rolf, among others. It's really not intended as a slight to say that Mr. Little is generally smooth and always businesslike as Titus. I'm guessing he and director Kopp put their heads together and realized a story so "over the top" with violence needs a very stable center to make it work. Plus, after 40 years of warring, Titus has probably seen all kinds of dismemberment and disfigurement already (though it really hits home here, with Ms. Henry's blood-chilling performance). We still get a full dose of horror and suspense, with an unexpectedly uplifting ending. Through September 3, 2017, at the Ivory Theatre, 7620 Michigan Ave., at Ivory Ave. For more information visit www.stlshakespeare.org Cast: Artistic and Technical Personnel: |
