Titus Andronicus at Hampstead Theatre
A revival of Max Webster’s arresting production, Titus Andronicus, dazzles audiences with gruesome spectacle, stunning performances and inspired sound design.
Shakespeare’s goriest play may be performed less frequently than the Bard’s more well-known tragedies, but the sheer amount of violence is both challenging and exciting for potential directors. It’s a tough balance: on the one hand, the weight of the depictions – sexual violence, mutilation, cannibalism – requires delicacy when staging; on the other, the tragedy’s bloodlust is so rampant and over-the-top that Harold Bloom suggested the plot ought to be read ironically.
Webster strikes that balance just right. The entire performance oozes style with grey-laden, depressing sets and costumes by Joanna Scotcher, in which actual buckets of bright red blood provide the only splash of colour, eerie screams and other sounds by Tingying Dong and haunted music by Matthew Herbert, and atmospheric lighting by Lee Curran. This all evokes a sense of the gothic: the play unfolds almost like a penny dreadful in which the violence on display is both tongue-in-cheek yet played with a sense of seriousness.
The cast, too, provides a sense of balance. Wendy Kweh as Tamora delights in the brutality and plain villainy of her character. Ken Nwosu as Aaron mirrors that energy, but as the plot unfolds, we see the tender, more complicated side to his character, even as he proclaims his devotion to cruelty. Max Bennett’s Saturninus is perfectly ridiculous and just the sort of fool one would imagine falling under the yoke of a cunning manipulator like Tamora.
But it is John Hodgkinson’s Titus that steals the show. It’s a complex character to play – from the retiring, noble Roman in the first act to the scheming, revenge-driven madman of the fifth, Hodgkinson is required to cover much ground, and he succeeds effortlessly. The audience is completely silent when he weeps for Lavinia (powerfully depicted by Letty Thomas), yet laughs aloud when he casually plays the cook as he serves dinner with a twist.
Titus Andronicus is a tough play to love, but Max Webster makes the best of it: both unsettlingly amusing and gut-wrenchingly tragic while providing a bloody spectacle, it’s a production that finds both horror and humour in Shakespeare’s most brutal work.
Michael Higgs
Photos: Genevieve Girling
Titus Andronicus is at Hampstead Theatre from 15th September until 11th October 2025. For further information or to book, visit the theatre’s website here.
Watch the trailer for Titus Andronicus at Hampstead Theatre here:
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