Shakespeare Magazine 01

Titus Andronicus
She wound up doing The Lion King and Spider-Man on Broadway. But 15 years
Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. Here’s what Robin Askew reckoned at the time...
Titus (18)
USA 1999 /162 minutes
Director: Julie Taymor
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange,
Alan Cumming, Harry Lennix, Colm Feore,
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Angus Macfadyen,
Laura Fraser
It’ll be too baroque, violent
and – whisper it! – funny
for those who prefer their
Shakespeare luvvie-cosy,
but Julie Taymor’s brave,
visually stunning re-imagining of
this little-known vengeance yarn
is an absolute vindication of her
contention that it’s an overlooked
masterpiece brimming with
contemporary resonance – and a
real treat for those who prefer the
Bard’s earlier, gorier ones.
Much has been written about the way
our appreciation of Shakespeare in general,
and Titus Andronicus in particular, is viewed
through the prism of Victorian criticism, with
all its attendant moral baggage. The brilliance
of Taymor’s version is that it recaptures the
spirit of old Bill’s biggest crowd-pleaser,
which entails the increasingly unpleasant
deaths of virtually all of its principals in a
cycle of vengeance that redeems nobody, with
an ugly side-order of sexual abuse, racism and
religiously inspired atrocity.
SHAKESPEARE magazine 29