Read Michael Sommers\u2019 \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606 review here.<\/a>]<\/p>\nIf you\u2019re wondering whether to laugh, cry, or cringe, you\u2019re not the only one. Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare\u2019s earliest tragedy and one of the least-produced plays in his canon, is a mess\u2014literally and literarily. T.S. Eliot famously called it \u201cone of the stupidest and most uninspired plays ever written.\u201d (What might Shakespeare have made of Eliot\u2019s Old Possum\u2019s Book of Practical Cats?) During the Act 5 dinner-party scene, Page\u2019s Titus emerges wearing a toque, a crisp white chef\u2019s jacket (which doesn\u2019t stay white for long), and a deranged grin that\u2019s part magnanimous host, part Marvel villain. He looks like he\u2019s about to stab someone, or sing \u201cBe Our Guest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Titus, a Roman general\u2014costumed by Emily Rebholz to look more than a little like a Nazi\u2014returns after leading his troops to victory over the Goths. He\u2019s carrying the remains three of his sons, who died in battle, as well as a group of Goth POWs: Tamora (Francesca Faridany), their queen; and her three sons, Alarbus (Blair Baker), plus the aforementioned pastries-in-waiting. As thanks for his military service, the Romans want Titus to take over as emperor; Titus demurs, tossing the crown to one of the late emperor\u2019s sons, the spineless Saturninus (Matthew Amendt). And when Saturninus decides he wants to marry Lavinia, Titus readily agrees, plucking her from the arms of her betrothed, Bassianus (Howard W. Overshown), Saturninus\u2019 brother. But the wind changes direction, and the capricious new emperor decides to marry the Goth queen instead. Someone should have counseled Saturninus against sleeping with the enemy.<\/p>\n
A few of director Jesse Berger\u2019s choices are inspired\u2014e.g., portraying Chiron and Demetrius as beer-pounding, tracksuit-wearing, back-slapping frat bros who are so odious that you\u2019ll be counting the minutes until their well-deserved murder and mutilation. You might be surprised to discover that Titus has a sister, Marcia (a wonderful Enid Graham); usually it\u2019s a brother named Marcus. It\u2019s a smart, sympathetic switch, especially considering that Marcia is the one who discovers the bruised, bloodied Lavinia and brings her to her father. And when it comes to Shakespeare\u2019s villains (or heroes), it\u2019s tough to do better than Page, who\u2019s played just about every Shakespeare villain and hero there is to play, not to mention the devil himself in Hadestown.<\/p>\n
The production runs about two hours and 20 minutes. The question that remains: How long do we think it takes the crew to clean up after the climactic killing spree?<\/p>\n
Titus Andronicus opened March 29, 2026, at the Signature Center and runs through April 19. Tickets and information: redbulltheater.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 29, 2026 9:00 pm By Melissa Rose Bernardo \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606\u2606 Shakespeare\u2019s bloodiest play gets a fittingly messy off-Broadway…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-179255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Titus](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TitusAndronicus.jpg\")
Enid Graham, Anthony Michael Lopez, Matthew Amendt, Patrick Page, and Francesca Faridany in Titus Andronicus (photo: Carol Rosegg)<\/p>\n