Titus Andronicus Research

Titus Andronicus was written by William Shakespeare and is thought to of been written between 1588-1593. In addition to this people think it was Shakespeare's first tragedy. The play is famous of being such a violent and bloody, which was properly poplar in the 16th century as they still had laws such as capital punishment (which didn't get abolished till the 20th century ) .  I think this is why I am really excited to put on this play because we are doing an all female cast which would of never happened in Shakespeare time. 

The play is set during the Roman Empire. The play is about the life of Titus who is a roman general. The people of Rome love Titus and want him to be emperor,however he doesn't think he should be as he isn't line therefore he says Saturninus should be emperor. The main themes of the play are death and revenge and I really like how Ben is fully exploring all the ideas of how we can exaggerate the themes.  

From what historians can find the first performance of Titus Andronicus was recorded in Philip Henslowe's diary on 24 January 1594 and where performed by Sussex's Men of Titus and ondronicus. As well as this, a printer called John Danter published a book called a Noble Roman Historye of Tytus Andronicus.  Also at the end of 1594 another play was published which was called The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus. Learning  that there are different version of the play is really interesting as it makes think that Shakespeare may have got his ideas from somewhere else. I would love to actually read the one of these and compare to Shakespeare's to see this what is similar about them. Epically when some people believe that the play was written warlier in 1614 by Ben Jonson in Bartholomew Fair. Jonson said "He that will swear, Jeronimo or Andronicus are the best plays, yet shall pass unexcepted at, here, as a man whose judgement shows it is constant, and hath stood still these five and twenty, or thirty years."  As I haven't read the Bartholmew Fair I cant really comment on this however I would really like to read and compare it.

The play wasn't performed for over 300 years in England until 8 October 1923 where the it returned to The Old Vic and was directed by Robert Atkins. The show had stars such as Wilfred Walter playing Titus , Florence Saunders as Tamora , Jane Bacon as Lavinia and George Hayes as Aaron. From researching about the production it was viewed very highly which I am glad of as it must of been really exciting to see a play that hasn't been performed for over 3 centuries. The way Atkins presented the play was with a strong sense of Elizabethan theatrical authenticity with not many props.  This was a great success for the the Box Office and The complete Works presentation.

However, the best and most successful production of Titus Andronicus was directed by the one and only Peter Brook. at the RSC in 1955.  the show starred Laurence Olivier as Titus , Maxine Audley as Tamora , Anthony Quayle as Aaron and Viven Leigh as Lavinia.  The media actually thought that the show fail and end Brook's career but they couldn't be more wrong. However Brook did make some strange cuts such as removing Marcus's speech about discovering Lavinia and removed some of the scenes in act 4.  I was quite surprised When I found Brook cut Marcus monologue as I thought this is something is un cut able as it fits in to the storyline. However I haven't read the full version of Titus Andronicus it make work however it wont in our adaptation. The production also Titus hand being cut off was never and they used red ribbons to symbolise the blood wounds. Personally, when you think of Titus Andronicus the first I think of is Titus having his hand chopped off and this not being on stage most of been really strange for the audience as this something that they were properly expecting. Obviously I didn't production but the cuts must of been cleverly done for the show to be such a success.  As well as this, the production went on a tour around Europe due to popular demand.

Finally, learning about different productions of Titus Andronicus is really important and has made me realise how this isn't put on enough because it is a really good play.