View from the director's chair...Gale Edwards on TITUS
I’ve wanted to direct Titus Andronicus for decades but was a little wary of it (its reputation precedes it!), and the opportunity never presented itself. Although I did talk to the Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company about doing a production a few years ago.
It’s the kind of play that a director loves to get their teeth into once in their life. Like scaling Mt. Everest – or plunging your hand into a furnace! It has beckoned me for over 20 years, and I have occasionally picked it up and reread it, only to then put it aside – waiting for the right moment.
I’d never seen Titus on stage before Michael offered it to me. Like most people, I’ve seen the Julie Taymor film, but that was years ago, and, in the movie, the text is severely cut. So when Michael contacted me and suggested the title, I was a little taken aback and, at the same time, thrilled.
I’m writing this at the end of Week Three of rehearsals. Every day I come to love and respect the play more and more. It is reputed to be a grotesque blood bath (in the spirit of the Jacobeans) – full of unnecessary violence for sensational effect. I think this is a grave misjudgment of the play.
This is a story, not about gratuitous violence, but about the results and repercussions of violence on society, on family and on the human psyche. It is a story about great pain and suffering, which is the inevitable result of any act of revenge. It deals with our capacity for terrible cruelty and our vulnerability as human beings. It deals with our nobility, our endurance and our definition of ourselves. Our very identity. The lopping off of limbs, in this reading of the play, becomes a powerful metaphor for the dismembership of the state, the destruction of our moral codes and the disintegration of our very humanity.
It is, undoubtedly, a disturbing, probing play, in which the relationship between sex and politics ferments into a potent cocktail of corruption. It investigates the notion that violence is handed down from generation to generation in an endless spiral that, unstopped, will lead to our oblivion.
Yet through it all, Shakespeare’s poetry shines like a luminous beacon – powerful, evocative and breathtaking.
So for me, every day in the rehearsal room working on this material is a challenge and a pleasure. Despite the fact that unspeakable things happen in this story, the atmosphere in the rehearsal room is generally joyous and excited. We all know that working on Titus is a privilege we may never enjoy again.
I think the play is extremely relevant to our times. If you can access the right internet site, you can witness live beheadings. Turn on the evening news, and you can watch a blood bath that leaves this play looking conservative. We live in a so-called sophisticated, technically advanced world – yet we seem on some levels more barbaric than ever. And, sadly, we do not seem to learn from the lessons of our past but instead repeat them over and over again.
Senseless war, terrorism, retaliation, counter attacks, betrayals and lies are all dominant themes in our everyday lives. Our politicians seem to lead us back into the same old methods and the same old crimes inflicted on other nations, on minority groups, on the “stranger” in our midst. We seem to forget that we are all one. The planet is our home. Collectively. In the face of global issues, and global catastrophes that loom on our horizons, nationhood and religious differences must give way to a collective view of all humanity as one family. We share so many things in common with our neighbors yet we seem so often to seek out only differences. Division and violence, payback for the past and power-seeking in the future will all result in our eventual destruction if they are allowed to remain the “engines” of our culture.
So, for me, Titus brings a timely reminder and a vital message for our times. The following speech by Marcus in the play might aptly be spoken at the next Congress meeting in Washington, D.C., or in the Houses of Parliament in London:
You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
By uproars severed, as a flight of fowl
Scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
O let me teach you how to knit again
This scattered corn into one mutual 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!
It’s the kind of play that a director loves to get their teeth into once in their life. Like scaling Mt. Everest – or plunging your hand into a furnace! It has beckoned me for over 20 years, and I have occasionally picked it up and reread it, only to then put it aside – waiting for the right moment.
I’d never seen Titus on stage before Michael offered it to me. Like most people, I’ve seen the Julie Taymor film, but that was years ago, and, in the movie, the text is severely cut. So when Michael contacted me and suggested the title, I was a little taken aback and, at the same time, thrilled.
I’m writing this at the end of Week Three of rehearsals. Every day I come to love and respect the play more and more. It is reputed to be a grotesque blood bath (in the spirit of the Jacobeans) – full of unnecessary violence for sensational effect. I think this is a grave misjudgment of the play.
This is a story, not about gratuitous violence, but about the results and repercussions of violence on society, on family and on the human psyche. It is a story about great pain and suffering, which is the inevitable result of any act of revenge. It deals with our capacity for terrible cruelty and our vulnerability as human beings. It deals with our nobility, our endurance and our definition of ourselves. Our very identity. The lopping off of limbs, in this reading of the play, becomes a powerful metaphor for the dismembership of the state, the destruction of our moral codes and the disintegration of our very humanity.
It is, undoubtedly, a disturbing, probing play, in which the relationship between sex and politics ferments into a potent cocktail of corruption. It investigates the notion that violence is handed down from generation to generation in an endless spiral that, unstopped, will lead to our oblivion.
Yet through it all, Shakespeare’s poetry shines like a luminous beacon – powerful, evocative and breathtaking.
So for me, every day in the rehearsal room working on this material is a challenge and a pleasure. Despite the fact that unspeakable things happen in this story, the atmosphere in the rehearsal room is generally joyous and excited. We all know that working on Titus is a privilege we may never enjoy again.
I think the play is extremely relevant to our times. If you can access the right internet site, you can witness live beheadings. Turn on the evening news, and you can watch a blood bath that leaves this play looking conservative. We live in a so-called sophisticated, technically advanced world – yet we seem on some levels more barbaric than ever. And, sadly, we do not seem to learn from the lessons of our past but instead repeat them over and over again.
Senseless war, terrorism, retaliation, counter attacks, betrayals and lies are all dominant themes in our everyday lives. Our politicians seem to lead us back into the same old methods and the same old crimes inflicted on other nations, on minority groups, on the “stranger” in our midst. We seem to forget that we are all one. The planet is our home. Collectively. In the face of global issues, and global catastrophes that loom on our horizons, nationhood and religious differences must give way to a collective view of all humanity as one family. We share so many things in common with our neighbors yet we seem so often to seek out only differences. Division and violence, payback for the past and power-seeking in the future will all result in our eventual destruction if they are allowed to remain the “engines” of our culture.
So, for me, Titus brings a timely reminder and a vital message for our times. The following speech by Marcus in the play might aptly be spoken at the next Congress meeting in Washington, D.C., or in the Houses of Parliament in London:
You sad-faced men, people and sons of Rome,
By uproars severed, as a flight of fowl
Scattered by winds and high tempestuous gusts,
O let me teach you how to knit again
This scattered corn into one mutual 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!
Gale Edwards, Director, Titus Andronicus
Labels: from the rehearsal hall
posted by Shakespeare Theatre Company at 5:12 PM
3 Comments:
I saw Titus, Tuesday the 3rd. of April. Gale Edwards and the company have done stunning work! The work itself is such a shocking tale of love, honour, loyalty, revenge, deceit, betrayal and sadness that it would be almost impossible not to be touched in some profound way.
With Edwards' and the company's characterizations, there is no "almost" about it...kudos to all involved.
I was in the audience during the dressed rehearsal and I thoroughly enjoyed the play. It particularly struck me how the simple message of revenge being a counter-productive way to correct a wrong remains valid to this day. I found the show spectacular. Would be usefule for some of our leaders to watch that play and think about the consequences of revenge. The actors and the director did superbly and I would recommend this play to anyone who has ever enjoyed theater.
I was in the audience during the dressed rehersal and thoroghly enjoyed this play. It is tragic; it gets somewhat funny at times, which underscores the tragedy. But most importantly it sends a great message: revenge is counter-productive way to right a wrong. I wish our leaders watched it four years ago. The actors and the director did superbly well and deserve the highest praise. I would recommend "Titus" to anyone.
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