Othello act 2: peer pressure, lightweights, and Tom Hiddleston...

2.1
When Professor Cohen lectured on this play, I believe he started with this scene because the theme he talked about was Othello giving him a claustrophobic feeling. You start here with a whole ocean, expansive, openness, and you start with hope and victory:
News, lads! our wars are done.
The desperate tempest hath so bang'd the Turks,
That their designment halts
and then we get to hear Cassio's thoughts on Desdemona:
CASSIO
The divine Desdemona.
MONTANO
What is she?
CASSIO
She that I spake of, our great captain's captain,
Left in the conduct of the bold Iago,
OK, so we have a few really juicy choices for the actor playing Cassio in just these few lines. First, does he mean divine Desdemona in reference to her fatihfulness/purity/etc.? or in the sense that he wants to make some music of the spheres with her? (I happen to think it's a SUPER interesting choice to have a Cassio who DOES have a thing for Desdemona but wouldn't act on it due to his respect for Othello and his own reputation… but that's just me…) of course on the other hand we have the "our great captain's captain" line which could either be a cover for his earlier line/possible feelings or is just a great little piece of misogyny about who "wears the pants" in the relationship… then we get this awkward line….
Great Jove, Othello guard,
And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath,
That he may bless this bay with his tall ship,
Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's arms,
Give renew'd fire to our extincted spirits
And bring all Cyprus comfort!
that's some detailed picturing about what othello is going to do in his marriage bed… just saying… next Cassio moves on to greet Emilia:
CASSIO
Welcome, mistress.
Let it not gall your patience, good Iago,
That I extend my manners; 'tis my breeding
That gives me this bold show of courtesy.
[Kissing her]
IAGO

Sir, would she give you so much of her lips

As of her tongue she oft bestows on me 

You'll have enough.
DESDEMONA

Alas, she has no speech.
IAGO

In faith, too much;

I find it still, when I have list to sleep:

Marry, before your ladyship, I grant,

She puts her tongue a little in her heart,

And chides with thinking.

So right off the bat we get an insight into the troubled marriage Emilia and Iago has… they certainly don't seem to be using their lips and tongues for kissing and the way. It's worth noticing how little Emilia talks in this scene because so much of this play is the silencing of women, something I think Vogel noted and why she created her response with no male voices, though the male presence is certainly felt… we get a sense of Iago's command of language and the situation he's in and there's the performance opportunity to have Emilia either shut him down with her response or to try and play along only to be shut down with Iago's next line:

IAGO
Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk:
You rise to play and go to bed to work.
EMILIA
You shall not write my praise.
IAGO
No, let me not.
Then Othello arrives, note how soon after Desdemona lands that Othello gets there… I LOVE Othello's greeting to Desdemona:
OTHELLO
O my fair warrior!
DESDEMONA
My dear Othello!
OTHELLO
It gives me wonder great as my content
To see you here before me. O my soul's joy!
My soul's joy… there's a term of endearment! also the fact that he calls her a warrior, no diminutive or feminization, a warrior…

The end of this scene has Iago continuing to play Roderigo and telling him that as for Desdemona:
very nature will instruct her in it and compel her to some second choice.
aka it's not natural for this white lady to remain interested in this black man. more of the same racist notes as before. But Roderigo won't even believe this calling on Desdemona's purity and blessedness to which Iago replies:
Blessed fig's-end! the wine she drinks is made of grapes: if she had been blessed, she would never have loved the Moor. Blessed pudding! 
If at first our racism doesn't succeed… try, try again seem's to be Iago's motto for dealing with Roderigo… but the meat of this scene comes when we get to Iago's soliloquy where we get two possible motives for why he is going to do so much damage in this play:
Now, I do love her too;
Not out of absolute lust, though peradventure
I stand accountant for as great a sin,
But partly led to diet my revenge,
For that I do suspect the lusty Moor
Hath leap'd into my seat; 
So… he MAY have a thing for Desdemona (like everyone in this play apparently) but he also has his own jealousy issues and thinks that Othello may have slept with Emilia. Two pretty compelling motivations. Are both true? Are either true? A WORLD of possibilities for the actor playing Iago.

2.2
A baby scene of a Herald reading a proclamation:
some to dance, some to make bonfires, each man to what sport and revels his addiction leads him: for, besides these beneficial news, it is the celebration of his nuptial. 
You always know its a good time when Shakespeare talks about bonfires. Also- WEDDING FEASTS- but sorry, you just have to imagine them.

2.3
Iago starts the scene goading Cassio about how great Desdemona is and then wishing happiness to the sheets of the new couple… so much interest in their marriage bed… then Iago begins his plan to get Cassio drunk and Cassio fends him off at first saying:

I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking: I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment.

But poor Cassio gets peer pressured into having a good time and drinking more than he should and since he's a lightweight, it isn't long before we hear this out of his mouth:

Do not think, gentlemen. I am drunk: this is my ancient; this is my right hand, and this is my left: I am not drunk now; I can stand well enough, and speak well enough.

The best way to tell if someone is drunk is them vehemently telling you they are not drunk… brings back memories of London…

FYI.. this was from the pre-Dan days… and my first real drunken night… where I continually denied being drunk… Poor Cassio, I know how easily it can sneak up on you!

Cassio's drunkenness leads us to this great line:
CASSIO
A knave teach me my duty!
I'll beat the knave into a twiggen bottle.
Anyone want to tell me WTF a twiggen bottle is? Or, as it was suggested in my textual culture class, is this some sort of fabulous textual anomaly we get to play with for centuries?
Anyway, of course Iago is called to testify about Cassio's actions:
I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth
Than it should do offence to Michael Cassio;
Yet, I persuade myself, to speak the truth
Shall nothing wrong him.
And the dramatic irony continues:
I know, Iago,
Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter,
Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee
But never more be officer of mine.
Then we get Cassio's speech and one of the most famous lines in the play:
Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!
This speech is BEAUTIFUL when sincerely meant. I have more to say about it, but in my sleep deprived state I'm pretty sure Tom Hiddleston can say it better (sorry about the weird captions, couldn't find another version…):

Then we have more thoughts on the perils of drinking:
O God, that men
should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away
their brains! that we should, with joy, pleasance
revel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!
A good line for temperance arguments, though not as harsh as the Claudio line about lust in Measure for Measure
After Cassio dejectedly leaves the scene, we get another FABULOUS soliloquy from Iago, we start with more misogynist guess who wears the pants in this relationship rhetoric:
Our general's wife is now the general:
Then move on to some awesome rhetorical questions:
And what's he then that says I play the villain?
When this advice is free I give and honest,
Probal to thinking and indeed the course
To win the Moor again? 
But, perhaps these questions are best when they are NOT rhetorical. When Ben Curns played Iago at the ASC he genuinely asked these questions in a moment of audience contact. the effect was chilling and this is definitely a choice i would recommend exploring. Then we get more ogling over Desdemona:
she's framed as fruitful As the free elements
I'm just going to take a moment here (rather selfishly I'll admit) to advocate for casting some CURVY women in this play. No need to make Desdemona a stick figure little girl. The text suggests she has a fruitful frame and I think it's far more interesting if Desdemona is not naive and simpering.
Finally, I leave you with another great line for our theoretical easy shop of needlework and other shakespearean trinkets:
How poor are they that have not patience!

And with that, I implore your patience as I continue to have a more random update schedule with all the other things going on in life!

I have returned- newlywed or newlymom? or BOTH?

So… it has been exactly a year since I last wrote in this blog. I knew i was going on a bit of a hiatus when I last wrote because i was just starting a new job and getting ready to head on a belated honeymoon to Italy. I didn't realize at the time that I'd be even more delayed by having a crazy pregnancy full of morning iciness and other general iciness, followed by the most wonderful experience of welcoming my son into the world and the new insanity that ensues with having a newborn in your life.
Don't worry, I had plenty of Shakespeare in my life during the past year. Dan and I did our second Pandanda Players show- M is for Marriage, I directed a 70 min touring production of Julius Caesar, I was the text coach for Love's Labour's Lost, and I led several Shakespeare workshops for jr. high and high school students.
Now, I'm trying to get into a new routine, still solidifying new job possibilities, and still learning new things every day about becoming a parent. I want to come back to this blog but I've had two worries: 1. I will be sporadic/won't have time- after all, I'm looking after a 3 month old. But you know what? Most of the bloggers I know who aren't getting some form of advertising revenue don't update everyday, and better sporadic than never, right?
2. Now that I'm a new mom, can I still consider myself a newlywed? Won't the tone of my blog change? This really bothered me for a while but you know what? I say no. I mean yes, I might focus more on parent/children relationships but that's something I was interested in before. And you know what else? I'm even more madly in love with Dan seeing him as a father than I was during our first year+ of marriage when I was writing before. So on to the adventure and re-cap the first act of Othello i wrote about a year ago because it's on to the 2nd act soon.

Othello Act I: I have returned!!

Hello all,
I know a took a long break there, but I have done a lot since I last wrote- went out of town and then I've been swamped transitioning into my new job and working box office for/closing Midsummer. Oh, and writing a play that my husband and I will perform in October. Plus our car was totaled so that's been its own adventure. So the blog fell by the wayside, consider the break preparation for the 2 week break I'll be taking in September!! (which is why i figured i'd better write again now or it will just never. happen.) But aside from a lengthy intro, i will probably be brief with this opening act.
INTRO:
SO: Othello. So I knew a lot about this play in high school, the basic storyline, literary references, etc. Actually I watched the movie "O" several times with one of my dear Brophy friends who was a little obsessed with it, but I first read it in full when i was assigned a scene from it in my Period Styles class at Pepperdine. I was assigned Emilia and instantly fell in love with her. Later, I saw the brilliant Allie Glenzer perform her role at the ASC and the way she and let's just say my peers and I agreed that in that production, as strong as ALL of the performers were (It was one of my favorite shows while I was there but it was hard to watch more than a few times because it was PAINFUL to watch that much passion and suffering too often. That's how good it was.) anyway, in spite of strong performances across the board, that that production could have been titled the tragedy of Emilia. I just started loving the character more after that. And then, in a strange twist of grad school fate, thanks to a particularly controversial/ frustrating MFA show pick, two women in the year above me asked me to join them for their "rebel" MFA show- the girls had broken off of a production of Taming of the Shrew and wanted to do a different play. Well, lucky for me, my strong feelings about Shrew had kept me from auditioning for the original MFA production meaning I was free to accept a role in this "rebel" production. They wanted to do Paula Vogel's Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief which is a feminist response to Othello and they asked if I would come on as Bianca. We were lucky enough to have Mary Coy direct us, a designated Linklater instructor who furthered my obsession with/ love of this voice work (more about this when we get to Pericles.) but after the first read through, my friend Laurie asked if we could switch roles as she felt I was more suited to Emilia and she to Bianca. I was THRILLED.

(photo by Woods Pierce)

since again, I'M IN LOVE WITH THIS CHARACTER and even though she is DEFINITELY different in Vogel's retelling, there are root things that are the same and beautiful. All that to say, the majority of pictures in my posts about Othello will probably come from the production I did of Desdemona and expect more moments and stories to come relating the two plays. I'd love the chance to run them in rep one day!!

1.1
Right away we get to the theme of jealousy. Iago admits to Roderigo within the first minute of the play that he is jealous of Othello's rising fortunes (though we'll find out later that's not all he's jealous about) and we also find out he's been using Roderigo's purse. Side note: I think Roderigo is one of the great underrated roles. Of course, the other theme that comes up right away is racism. A central component of the show, we hear people refer to Othello as - thicklips, his Moorship, etc.
There are a plethora of incredible sayings even in just the first act:
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters
Cannot be truly follow'd. 
Or, if you want to be much more existential:
It is as sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
then the attention goes to waking up Brabantio- Desdemona's father. Notice the way she's listed in this series:
Look to your house, your daughter and your bags!
Thieves! thieves!
So the daughter is more or less just another possession in the list. super. now let's get to more racism:
Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Is topping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
Oh, and with the racism, we have some special sexual innuendos too. Did you like that one? Get ready for a more famous one:
BRABANTIO
What profane wretch art thou?
IAGO
I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter
and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.
Beast with two backs. nice. Add that to our etsy shop... for bachelorette gifts and whatnot...  and now that his daughter might be sleeping with a black man, suddenly Brabantio cares:
BRABANTIO
O she deceives me
Past thought! What said she to you? Get more tapers:
Raise all my kindred. Are they married, think you?
RODERIGO

Truly, I think they are.
BRABANTIO

O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood!

Just note the question- how got she out. Is desdemona usually under guard? I don't understand. But I know it's a helluva way to start a play. And now that we've heard so much about Othello, let's move to a scene with him:

1.2

So Othello's view of marriage is actually fairly similar to mine:

 for know, Iago,
But that I love the gentle Desdemona,
I would not my unhoused free condition
Put into circumscription and confine
For the sea's worth.
In other words, unless you are in love like crazy, it seems really stupid to give up the single life. A messenger comes in to break up the party to tell him that the duke wants to see Othello:
And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance,
Even on the instant.
I just love that turn of phrase. Haste-post-haste. Must start using that. of course, Othello is then confronted about his choice of bride with crazy accusations:
Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her;
Because any time things don't go your way the clear answer is witchcraft. Othello has a beautiful response to his fellows drawing their swords:
Hold your hands,
Both you of my inclining, and the rest:
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it
Without a prompter.
Do you like that meta reference to a prompter? OK, on to the next...

1.3
We find out that the Duke is concerned about war. Soldiers and plans and whatnots:
The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes;
ah the Turks. always good to throw that conflict in.
Write from us to him; post-post-haste dispatch.
They are really into their terms for doing things fast in this play... that's all I'm saying...
BRABANTIO
My daughter! O, my daughter!
DUKE OF VENICE
Dead?
BRABANTIO
Ay, to me;
She is abused, stol'n from me, and corrupted
By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks;
I love that even supposing this crazy story about witchcraft and spells is correct, and it was by no will of her own, Brabantio is STILL considering his daughter dead to him. And by love I mean hey look, another example of how daughters are just what their fathers want them to be or else what their husbands want or else worth nothing. super. CAN WE GET TO THE ROMANCES PLEASE?!
A maiden never bold;
Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
Blush'd at herself; and she, in spite of nature,
Of years, of country, credit, every thing,
To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on!
I actually think there's a lot in that passage for the actress playing Des to think about- the consequences of if she was always shy and then by love made bold or if this is how she acted for her father until now or if this is just not true? And what is kind of awesome is Othello's reaction:
I do beseech you,
Send for the lady to the Sagittary,
And let her speak of me before her father:
He wants to give Desdemona a voice. Something that I wish he'd consider later... but having a voice and being silenced are HUGE themes in this play. And part of why it's so hard for me to watch and yet still so wonderfully fascinating.
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
So Othello tells us in the meantime that he bewitched her with storytelling. Desdemona then comes in and tells her father that now she has to obey her husband, not him. The Duke then talks to Othello about what he brought him there for in the first place- problems with the Turks and that he needs to leave and fight them. Desdemona insists she go with Othello and travel away from her home. quite brave really. and showing us that he is not jealous to begin with, this is what he decides to do with her:
So please your grace, my ancient;
A man he is of honest and trust:
To his conveyance I assign my wife,
With what else needful your good grace shall think
To be sent after me.
So he wants Desdemona to chill with Iago in the meantime. Not the kind of thing a jealous man would say so easily right? I just think its a far more interesting choice to see him break down than have him naturally unsure from the start. LIke the murder in Macbeth I think it's a much more terrifying story if we can see what happens to him as something that is possible to happen to us. But just to start planting the jealous seeds, we have Brabantio's parting shot:
BRABANTIO
Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:
She has deceived her father, and may thee.
OTHELLO
My life upon her faith! 
Everyone else leaves and we close out the act the way we started it- with Iago and Roderigo
Roderigo decides he will drown himself to which Iago replies:
Come, be a man. Drown thyself! drown cats and blind puppies. 
Amazing line. and then he goes on for a long speech to Roderigo that emphasizes over and over to put money in his purse and make more money for the two of them to spend. Then the second Roderigo is gone we get:
Thus do I ever make my fool my purse:
And then he goes on to have what I think has the potential to be the most chilling and brilliant bit of audience interaction:
let me see now:
To get his place and to plume up my will
In double knavery--How, how? Let's see:--
OK, imagine all that is said to different audience members, and after the last line, whoever that was taken too Iago reacts as if it inspires his whole plan. now that audience member is in a way even more implicit in Iago's actions than the rest of the audience, and responsible for all the death that is to follow. Since they "inspired" this:
After some time, to abuse Othello's earThat he (Cassio) is too familiar with his wife.
CREEPY. FABULOUS.
and with that I leave you.

Titus Act 5: Bloody Bloody Ends...

5.1
We start act 5 with Lucius riling up the Goths and the Goths seem happy to have him.
Brave slip, sprung from the great Andronicus, Whose name was once our terror, now our comfort;
and all the goths agree (this is a scene where I feel like a huge ensemble can be so powerful instead of having 2-3 goths) because there's something amazing about hearing a true chorus of people say:
And as he saith, so say we all with him.
Then in comes another Goth who has discovered Aaron and Aaron's baby. WE find out that it is the baby who gave him away, and Aaron sticks to his earlier declarations. He won't speak until his child is threatened:
LUCIUS
Say, wall-eyed slave, whither wouldst thou convey This growing image of thy fiend-like face? Why dost not speak? what, deaf? not a word? A halter, soldiers! hang him on this tree. And by his side his fruit of bastardy. AARON 
Touch not the boy; he is of royal blood.
He is so fierce about his son. it never ceases to amaze me.
AARON 
Lucius, save the child,
And bear it from me to the empress.
If thou do this, I'll show thee wondrous things,
That highly may advantage thee to hear:
If thou wilt not, befall what may befall,
I'll speak no more but 'Vengeance rot you all!'
LUCIUS 
Say on: an if it please me which thou speak'st Thy child shall live, and I will see it nourish'd.
and what comes next is so full of the philosophical debate Shakespeare approaches with religion over and over again, what will and will not guide our choices and whether we should be grateful for or frustrated with our consciences:
LUCIUS 
Who should I swear by? thou believest no god:
That granted, how canst thou believe an oath?
AARON 
What if I do not? as, indeed, I do not; Yet, for I know thou art religious And hast a thing within thee called conscience,
Then Aaron has a long speech about all the terrible things he's done, i'll just give you a highlight of the act I find most disturbing:
Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves, And set them upright at their dear friends' doors, Even when their sorrows almost were forgot; And on their skins, as on the bark of trees, Have with my knife carved in Roman letters, 'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.' Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things As willingly as one would kill a fly,
and Lucius decides to wait and not hang Aaron but to bring him into Rome with his Goth army and dispatch with him later.

5.2
This is the one scene where I just wonder how to reconcile act 5 Tamora with Tamora the rest of the play. It's like all the brains she used earlier just disappeared, and the plot seems stretched so thin in this scene it's painful.It makes me wonder what Shakespeare would have done with it if he'd written this play later in his career... or if he just doesn't care about this clunky bridge because 5.3 moves so fast and ruthlessly most audience members will forgive this scene in practice... but still it's ROUGH on the actress playing Tamora.
Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment,
I will encounter with Andronicus,
And say I am Revenge, sent from below
To join with him and right his heinous wrongs.
So after tamora comes up with this brilliant plan she refuses to swerve from it...
TAMORA 
If thou didst know me, thou wouldest talk with me.
TITUS ANDRONICUS 
I am not mad; I know thee well enough:
Titus is telling her the truth! and whether this is an aside or not, Tamora should really start worrying after Titus tels her this:
Do me some service, ere I come to thee. Lo, by thy side where Rape and Murder stands; Now give me some surance that thou art Revenge, Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot-wheels;
Tamora tries to justify not stabbing her poorly disguised sons by saying they are Revenge's helpers. She is just SO overly confident that Titus is totally crazy town and has not one of his wits left to him:
This closing with him fits his lunacy Whate'er I forge to feed his brain-sick fits, Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches,
And perhaps the first time she starts to sense something could go wrong is here:
TAMORA 
Now will I hence about thy business,
And take my ministers along with me.
TITUS ANDRONICUS 
Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with me; Or else I'll call my brother back again, And cleave to no revenge but Lucius.
And whether it's because she buys Titus' crazy again or she knows she's being blackmailed and needs more time to scheme a way to save herself and her sons, she talks with Chiron and Demetrius about this option and they agree to stay with Titus. and then Titus has this line to the audience that just rings of lines in later palys:
I know them all, though they suppose me mad, And will o'erreach them in their own devices: A pair of cursed hell-hounds and their dam!
This just makes me think of Hal saying "I know you all" followed by Hamlet's supposed madness followed by one of my favorite lines from Macbeth, "Turn, hell hound, turn" I love the traces of language and poetry to come again. all the echoes throughout the canon.
So of course, once Tamora is gone, Titus lets loose and Chiron and Demetrius know the game is up. Titus takes great pains to tell Chiron and Demetrius what he's going to do with them:
Come, come, Lavinia; look, thy foes are bound. Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me; But let them hear what fearful words I utter.
Hark, wretches! how I mean to martyr you.
This one hand yet is left to cut your throats,
Whilst that Lavinia 'tween her stumps doth hold
The basin that receives your guilty blood.
You know your mother means to feast with me,
And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad:
Hark, villains! I will grind your bones to dust
And with your blood and it I'll make a paste,
And of the paste a coffin I will rear
And make two pasties of your shameful heads,
And bid that strumpet, your unhallow'd dam,
Like to the earth swallow her own increase.
So yes, long before sweeney todd, baking people into pies was a thing. and speaking of other stories who use this plot point....
Any of you who have seen the Southpark Episode Scott Tenorman Must Die probably recognized this plot point. I remember a friend of mine, David, expected me to be utterly horrified by the end of the episode and was a bit disappointed when my only reaction was yeah.... Shakespeare already did that... here's how I imagine Titus wishes he would have reacted before what goes down next with Tamora:

but let's get to that finale right now:
the scene begins with all the major players left assembling at Titus' house- including Lucius and his Goths- who hide Aaron inside the house, and Saturninus and Tamora. Next comes another goldmine of a stage direction
[Enter TITUS dressed like a Cook, LAVINIA veiled, Young LUCIUS, and others. TITUS places the dishes on the table]

How can you not start to giggle when the specific direction is that Titus has dressed up as a crazy chef to serve Tamora her sons?! SERIOUSLY!
OK, here's the bit that makes me super uncomfortable with this play/ why I wasn't sure I could like it again:
 TITUS ANDRONICUS 
An if your highness knew my heart, you were.
My lord the emperor, resolve me this:
Was it well done of rash Virginius
To slay his daughter with his own right hand,
Because she was enforced, stain'd, and deflower'd?
SATURNINUS
It was, Andronicus. TITUS ANDRONICUS 
Your reason, mighty lord?
SATURNINUS  
Because the girl should not survive her shame, And by her presence still renew his sorrows.
The attitude that we should kill all the raped girl because they should not outlive their shame (THEIR shame for an act THEY didn't do = problem #1, strike that, make KILLING THEM problem #1 and that other problem problem #2) seriously. and it's an attitude i think is still all too common in the world today and it's upsetting and depressing and all sorts of things, but maybe that's why we need to have this here, so that we can see Lavinia in an extreme situation, and still get to talk afterward about how we feel that Titus kills her, kills her in front of everyone with Saturninus' justification. When he's asked why he did this his crazy town awesome response is:
Will't please you eat? will't please your highness feed?
and then he reveals why he was obsessed with everyone eating, and after that, things happen in rapid succession
TITUS ANDRONICUS 
Why, there they are both, baked in that pie; 
Whereof their mother daintily hath fed, 
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred. 
'Tis true, 'tis true; witness my knife's sharp point. 
[Kills TAMORA]
 SATURNINUS 
Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed! 
[Kills TITUS]  
LUCIUS 
Can the son's eye behold his father bleed?
There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed!
[Kills SATURNINUS. A great tumult.]To quote anchor man:

and then we come back to the next generation, Lucius says to Young Lucius
Come hither, boy; come, come, and learn of us
yes, learn of all the vengeance and tears young one. be like the other men in this story, seeing as there are NO FEMALES LEFT in the play (we'll come to this again in Timon, shakespeare seems to paint a pretty bleak picture when we get to worlds without women...) and then we get back to Aaron's punishment since Lucius promised him a death worse than hanging:
Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him;
There let him stand, and rave, and cry for food;
If any one relieves or pities him,
For the offence he dies. This is our doom:
Some stay to see him fasten'd in the earth.
and as for Tamora:
No funeral rite, nor man m mourning weeds, No mournful bell shall ring her burial; But throw her forth to beasts and birds of prey: Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity; And, being so, shall have like want of pity.
then the last line of the play is this little couplet desperately trying to cling to what's left of society:
Then, afterwards, to order well the state,
That like events may ne'er it ruinate.
The big staging question in this scene (you know, aside from all that fight choreography that just happened) is what to do with Aaron's baby. THere's no specific mention other than it is referenced someone has it in their arms at some point. Do you ignore it and focus on Lucius at the end? Does young Lucius bash it's little head in to re-start the cycle of violence? Do they look like they might actually forgive and be kind to this baby? I think what you do with this baby has a huge impact on how you read the ending of this play, and i'm not the only one.

Next up: I've gone a bit out of order again and realized that the two new plays I did for my undergrad shakespeare acting class should have come before this one, but that's ok we'll do them next. So get ready for Othello! You better believe I'll have a good deal to say about Paula Vogel's Desdemona: A Play About A Handkerchief as well!!

Titus Act 4: Royal births & your mom jokes

4.1
This act continues to focus on the next generation with Young Lucius spurring the action:
Young LUCIUS 
Help, grandsire, help! my aunt Lavinia
Follows me every where, I know not why:
Good uncle Marcus, see how swift she comes.
Alas, sweet aunt, I know not what you mean.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS 
Stand by me, Lucius; do not fear thine aunt.
  TITUS ANDRONICUS 
She loves thee, boy, too well to do thee harm.
It strikes me how over and over on this read through that there is a whole lot of love expressed about/toward/from Lavinia. This scene of course is when Lavinia finally gets to express what has happened to her:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS 
I think she means that there was more than one
Confederate in the fact: ay, more there was;
Or else to heaven she heaves them for revenge.
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Lucius, what book is that she tosseth so?
Young LUCIUS 
Grandsire, 'tis Ovid's Metamorphoses;
OK, confession, I have never read Ovid's Metamorphoses... and I feel guilty about that because it comes up over and over again in early modern works. Don't worry, it's going on my list... it will be strange because I'm familiar with so many of the components but should really read the whole thing...
TITUS ANDRONICUS 
Lavinia, wert thou thus surprised, sweet girl, 
Ravish'd and wrong'd, as Philomela was, 
Forced in the ruthless, vast, and gloomy woods? See, see!
Ay, such a place there is, where we did hunt--
O, had we never, never hunted there!--
Pattern'd by that the poet here describes,
By nature made for murders and for rapes.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS 
O, why should nature build so foul a den, Unless the gods delight in tragedies?
I love that they curse the woods, blame the place. I get that. Also note the comparison to Philomel and look back at my Midsummer post when I said it was a WEIRD thing to sing about in a lullabye...
My lord, look here: look here, Lavinia:
This sandy plot is plain; guide, if thou canst
This after me, when I have writ my name
Without the help of any hand at all.
[He writes his name with his staff, and guides it with feet and mouth]
Cursed be that heart that forced us to this shift!
Write thou good niece; and here display, at last,
What God will have discover'd for revenge;
Heaven guide thy pen to print thy sorrows plain,
That we may know the traitors and the truth!
OK, this is where Shakespeare's weird manipulation of time throughout his plays makes you go.. wait, huh? how long has it been between scenes?! Have months passed and it took Marcus (and everyone else) THAT LONG to realize Lavinia could write with a stick in the ground? (Or with her feet for that matter, right?) Or is this only a few days after and they needed that time for the shock to wear off? Think on that and let's come back to the time conundrum next scene...
My lord, kneel down with me; Lavinia, kneel;
And kneel, sweet boy, the Roman Hector's hope;
And swear with me, as, with the woful fere
And father of that chaste dishonour'd dame,
Lord Junius Brutus sware for Lucrece' rape,
That we will prosecute by good advice
Mortal revenge upon these traitorous Goths,
And see their blood, or die with this reproach.
And so we're back to revenge as god and the indoctrination of the next generation into this religion of revenge is complete:
Young LUCIUS 
I say, my lord, that if I were a man,
Their mother's bed-chamber should not be safe
For these bad bondmen to the yoke of Rome.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS 
Ay, that's my boy! thy father hath full oft
For his ungrateful country done the like.
Young LUCIUS 
And, uncle, so will I, an if I live.
The scene ends with Marcus appealing to the gods:
O heavens, can you hear a good man groan, And not relent, or not compassion him?

4.2
We go from Titus' family to Tamora's family. Chiron and Demetrius receive a little gift with a note- a note in Latin no less.
DEMETRIUS 
What's here? A scroll; and written round about?
Let's see; 
[Reads]
'Integer vitae, scelerisque purus,
Non eget Mauri jaculis, nec arcu.'
CHIRON 
O, 'tis a verse in Horace; I know it well: 
I read it in the grammar long ago.
AARON 

Ay, just; a verse in Horace; right, you have it.
[Aside]
Now, what a thing it is to be an ass!
Here's no sound jest! the old man hath found their guilt;
And sends them weapons wrapped about with lines, 
There's always something fun about watching some characters who are rather dim right next to characters who are quite brilliant. And then this happens:

[Enter a Nurse, with a blackamoor Child in her arms]

Oh snap, It seems that Tamora has had a baby. and it's black! So there are a ton of components to this- 1. our discussion of time. Tamora has either needed apx. 9 months to have a baby OR she was already pregnant when Saturninus decided she was hot and wanted to wed her. but that brings up another issue-  the rest of the scene hinges on the emperor needing to think the child is his instead of Aaron's. Which brings up another issue- this is a ROYAL BABY!!! so imagine the scandal, think about all the hubbub around the new royal baby this past week:

Now imagine them appearing for that picture with a black baby.... awkward times! Even the super stupid Chiron and Demetrius can put that together:
 DEMETRIUS 
Villain, what hast thou done?
AARON 
That which thou canst not undo.
  CHIRON 
Thou hast undone our mother.
AARON 
Villain, I have done thy mother.
BEST/one of the oldest YOUR MOM moments EVER!!!! right?! But what's even more amazing is that Aaron the "villain" of the play finds his moral non negotiable- when Chiron and Demetrius try to fulfill Tamora's wish about killing the baby, Aaron stops them: 
Stay, murderous villains! will you kill your brother?
Now, by the burning tapers of the sky,
That shone so brightly when this boy was got,
He dies upon my scimitar's sharp point
That touches this my first-born son and heir!
This incredible, beautiful fatherly instinct is one of the most compelling pieces of this play. When they question his disobeying Tamora his reply is:
My mistress is my mistress; this myself,
The vigour and the picture of my youth:
This before all the world do I prefer;
This maugre all the world will I keep safe,
Again, family vs. country vs. love would be an excellent essay topic for a teacher to assign on this play... Then Aaron goes about to do PR control. He asks the midwife who saw the baby-
 AARON 
The empress, the midwife, and yourself:
Two may keep counsel when the third's away:
Go to the empress, tell her this I said.
[He kills the nurse]
Weke, weke! so cries a pig prepared to the spit.c
And so the doting father then turns and kills a woman and makes fun of the noise she makes when she dies. With Aaron you never know what's coming next.
4.3
A very strange scene highlighting Titus' madness as well as things that are a pain in the ass for a theatre to stage:
Sir boy, now let me see your archery;
Yes, they shoot bows and arrows during this scene and it's definitely in the text/would be weird if you didn't do that. I hope you have actors who can aim because nothing looks worse than prop arrows bouncing off scenery...
TITUS ANDRONICUS 
Publius, how now! how now, my masters!
What, have you met with her?
PUBLIUS  
No, my good lord; but Pluto sends you word,
If you will have Revenge from hell, you shall:
Marry, for Justice, she is so employ'd,
He thinks, with Jove in heaven, or somewhere else,
So that perforce you must needs stay a time.
So everyone is playing along with Titus' crazy town, when in comes a clown:
 [Enter a Clown, with a basket, and two pigeons in it]
TITUS ANDRONICUS 
But what says Jupiter, I ask thee?
Clown 
Alas, sir, I know not Jupiter; I never drank with him in all my life.
TITUS ANDRONICUS 
Why, villain, art not thou the carrier?
  Clown 
Ay, of my pigeons, sir; nothing else.
Poor clown, you absurd delightful little thing, interacting with Titus can bring NO GOOD to you!!!

4.4
In the palace of Saturninus, where Titus and co. have been shooting arrows, Saturninus is not pleased:
Sweet scrolls to fly about the streets of Rome!  
What's this but libelling against the senate,  
And blazoning our injustice every where?  
A goodly humour, is it not, my lords?  
As who would say, in Rome no justice were.  
But if I live, his feigned ecstasies
Shall be no shelter to these outrages:
And in comes our poor clown who has no idea what he's in for and leads us in with a lovely anachronistic phrase:
Clown 
'Tis he. God and Saint Stephen give you good e'en: I have brought you a letter and a couple of pigeons here. 
[SATURNINUS reads the letter]  
SATURNINUS 
Go, take him away, and hang him presently.
Cue sound: WHA WHA. poor clown. but seriously, we meet this character for such a short time and Saturninus is so cray cray you can't help but laugh at this moment.. then we get this lovely message:
Arm, arm, my lord;--Rome never had more cause.
The Goths have gather'd head; and with a power
high-resolved men, bent to the spoil,
They hither march amain, under conduct
Of Lucius, son to old Andronicus;
Who threats, in course of this revenge, to do
As much as ever Coriolanus did.
Alright! now it's a national issue of war again. Not to mention I am looking forward to talking about Coriolanus as we reach the end of my experience with the canon... so Tamora comes up with this wacktastic plan:
Go thou before, be our ambassador:
Say that the emperor requests a parley
Of warlike Lucius, and appoint the meeting
Even at his father's house, the old Andronicus.
This doesn't seem like the smartest idea but it comes from Tamora so we'll give her the benefit of the doubt for now...
Now will I to that old Andronicus;
And temper him with all the art I have,
To pluck proud Lucius from the warlike Goths.
And now, sweet emperor, be blithe again,
And bury all thy fear in my devices.
And that's how we'll leave the blog today. hopefully tomorrow we'll get to the twistastic ending. In the meantime, just another reminder that if you live in Phoenix you should check out the Brelby production of Midsummer! We opened last night to a sold out house and had great reactions!
Tickets: brelby.showclix.com

Titus Act 3: I wanna Hold your Hand

After the super serious blog yesterday, I'd like to take this moment  to share my favorite Titus Andronicus memory. It was in my 1st week of grad school and Clara and I were among some other classmates seeing the ASC production, and we shared the mixed horror and delight when at intermission the actors began to play the Beatles song I wanna hold your hand. Dark humor at it's best. Think I'm just talking about Lavinia? Read on...
3.1
We start with Titus begging for his sons that are accused of Bassianus' murder to be forgiven or found innocent. Lucius warns Titus that no one hears him:
Why, tis no matter, man; if they did hear,
They would not mark me, or if they did mark,
They would not pity me, yet plead I must;  
Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones;  
Who, though they cannot answer my distress,  
Yet in some sort they are better than the tribunes,  
For that they will not intercept my tale:  
When I do weep, they humbly at my feet
Receive my tears and seem to weep with me; ...  
A stone is soft as wax,--tribunes more hard than stones;
There's something epic and almost biblical about this speech. It reminds me of talk about Pharaoh's hardened heart, etc. Again, just a lot of incredible beauty against the anguish and absurdity. Then we start talking about another one of Shakespeare's favorite animals, you know, aside from dogs:
Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive
That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers?
Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey
But me and mine:
and just to make Titus' grief all the worse, in comes Marcus with Lavinia:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS 
Titus, prepare thy aged eyes to weep;
Or, if not so, thy noble heart to break:
I bring consuming sorrow to thine age.
TITUS ANDRONICUS 
Will it consume me? let me see it, then.  
MARCUS ANDRONICUS 
This was thy daughter.
TITUS ANDRONICUS 
Why, Marcus, so she is.
That tense correction is always chilling. That regardless of the damage and the self imposed shame lavinia is feeling, she is STILL his daughter.
and he that wounded her Hath hurt me more than had he killed me dead:
*Let's take a moment to contemplate what things we think are worse than death. and go...
ok, now back to titus
Is dear Lavinia, dearer than my soul.
Had I but seen thy picture in this plight,  
It would have madded me: what shall I do
Now I behold thy lively body so?
Thou hast no hands, to wipe away thy tears:
Side note, from a purely technical standpoint, playing Lavinia is a pain. How do I know this, having never played Lavinia, because I played another character that has no hands- Anne Dexter in The Queens:

not having hands, while an instant character physicalization, is a SERIOUS PAIN- both literally- your hands start cramping up as you twist them in a way that can make the stumps look semi-believable, and otherwise- you can't make a quick note of changes in blocking during tech week because you have no hands to use your pencil. you can't easily itch your nose, but damn it if you don't walk out of every rehearsal and performance thanking God you still have your hands. So take a moment and be so happy for your hands. (additionally, lavinia has to do a lot of work with stage blood in her mouth which thankfully i've never had to do- i have decided though that if I were playing such a role I would hope that I could keep red velvet cupcake mix in my mouth as stage blood- just sayin....)Anyway... Titus is so upset that he's making lavinia hate herself even more, which is so sad to watch.
LUCIUS 
Sweet father, cease your tears; for, at your grief,
See how my wretched sister sobs and weeps.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS 
Patience, dear niece. Good Titus, dry thine eyes.
And into this party of mourning comes Aaron. and this is what he has to say:
Titus Andronicus, my lord the emperor  
Sends thee this word,--that, if thou love thy sons,
 Let Marcus, Lucius, or thyself, old Titus,
Or any one of you, chop off your hand,  
And send it to the king: he for the same  
Will send thee hither both thy sons alive;  
And that shall be the ransom for their fault.
Cue the absurdity- Marcus, Lucius, and Titus start arguing over WHO GETS TO CHOP OFF THEIR HAND! truly TRULY absurd. so Titus tricks Marcus and lucius to go get an axe and the two of them can argue it out on the way, in the meantime he has aaron chop off his hand so when Marcus and Lucius come back with the axe there's no longer a use for it. Aaron then let's us know that Titus may have tricked them but in the end, he's tricked titus even worse:
I go, Andronicus: and for thy hand
Look by and by to have thy sons with thee.
[Aside]
Their heads, I mean. O, how this villany
Doth fat me with the very thoughts of it!
Let fools do good, and fair men call for grace.
Aaron will have his soul black like his face.
Yeah, so the dude cut off his hand for nothing...
What, wilt thou kneel with me?  
Do, then, dear heart; for heaven shall hear our prayers;
I love that moment. That if you can't use your voice in the world you can start with knowing that heaven still hears you. when no one else will listen, heaven still hears you.
Then Titus really starts to go crazy.
If there were reason for these miseries,  
Then into limits could I bind my woes:  
When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o'erflow?
and then even moreso:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS 
Why dost thou laugh? it fits not with this hour.
TITUS ANDRONICUS 
Why, I have not another tear to shed:
Besides, this sorrow is an enemy,  
And would usurp upon my watery eyes
And make them blind with tributary tears:  
Then which way shall I find Revenge's cave?
and so we're back to vengeance. death death death. oh, did I mention that Titus' arms get sent back with what's left of his sons who he has clearly not saved? So titus suggests this horrifying course of action:
Lavinia, thou shalt be employ'd: these arms!
Bear thou my hand, sweet wench, between thy teeth.
As for thee, boy, go get thee from my sight;
Thou art an exile, and thou must not stay:
Hie to the Goths, and raise an army there:
And, if you love me, as I think you do,
Let's kiss and part, for we have much to do.
Few things can make an audience squirm/laugh uncomfortably like poor lavinia carrying off a bloody hand in her bloody mouth...
and that's 3.1

3.2
A shorter scene where we are introduced to the idea of the next generation and what all this cycle of violence stuff is doing to them, a theme that will be further developed later. It's meal time and Titus, Marcus, Lavinia, and "young lucius" are around the table with this cheery dinner talk:
TITUS ANDRONICUS
Thou map of woe, that thus dost talk in signs!  
When thy poor heart beats with outrageous beating,  
Thou canst not strike it thus to make it still.  
Wound it with sighing, girl, kill it with groans;  
Or get some little knife between thy teeth,  
And just against thy heart make thou a hole;
That all the tears that thy poor eyes let fall  
May run into that sink, and soaking in  
Drown the lamenting fool in sea-salt tears.
 MARCUS ANDRONICUS 
 Fie, brother, fie! teach her not thus to lay
Such violent hands upon her tender life.
have I mentioned that sometimes this play kills my heart? But just when i think I can't take it anymore I get another dose of a much needed laugh:
Why, Marcus, no man should be mad but I.  
What violent hands can she lay on her life?  
Ah, wherefore dost thou urge the name of hands;
That awkward moment where you realize you've said hands to your handless friends... and then young Lucius cuts in:
Good grandsire, leave these bitter deep laments: Make my aunt merry with some pleasing tale.
the child bids Titus look on the bright side of life, but that is not to be. sorry about your childhood becoming more violent and twisted by the second young lucius! And then we get into the would or wouldn't kill a fly section:
MARCUS ANDRONICUS 
At that that I have kill'd, my lord; a fly.
TITUS ANDRONICUS 
Out on thee, murderer! thou kill'st my heart;
Mine eyes are cloy'd with view of tyranny:
A deed of death done on the innocent
Becomes not Titus' brother: get thee gone:
I see thou art not for my company.
MARCUS ANDRONICUS 
Alas, my lord, I have but kill'd a fly.
TITUS ANDRONICUS 
 But how, if that fly had a father and mother?  
How would he hang his slender gilded wings,
And buzz lamenting doings in the air!
Poor harmless fly,
That, with his pretty buzzing melody,
Came here to make us merry! and thou hast kill'd him.
WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT?! Marcus says the only thing that can take Titus from kill nothing to fly masachre machine in seconds, he compares the fly to Aaron and Tamora:
O, O, O, Then pardon me for reprehending thee,  
For thou hast done a charitable deed.  
Give me thy knife, I will insult on him;  
Flattering myself, as if it were the Moor  
Come hither purposely to poison me.
-- There's for thyself, and that's for Tamora.  
Ah, sirrah!  
Yet, I think, we are not brought so low,  
But that between us we can kill a fly
And Marcus then realizes that no good can come from Titus' mania.
Alas, poor man! grief has so wrought on him, He takes false shadows for true substances.
More absurdity, more violence, and more death to follow soon. it's tech times once again (I did not anticipate being involved in so many artistic endeavors in a single year when I started this blog! It may mean I don't finish in the year's goal I originally set for myself, but it's because i have amazing shows and opportunities happening and who can complain about that?!?!)
And just for the fun of it:

Titus Act 2: making Game of Thrones look like a children's book...

2.1
We open with a monologue from Aaron the Moore. Dude is pretty sick and twisted but like the all the best Shakespeare villains he is smart, manipulative, and confident in his sexuality:
Then, Aaron, arm thy heart, and fit thy thoughts,  
To mount aloft with thy imperial mistress,
 And mount her pitch, whom thou in triumph long  
Hast prisoner held, fetter'd in amorous chains
And faster bound to Aaron's charming eyes
Than is Prometheus tied to Caucasus.  
Away with slavish weeds and servile thoughts!  
I will be bright, and shine in pearl and gold,  
To wait upon this new-made empress.
To wait, said I? to wanton with this queen,
Using wanton as a verb instead of an adjetive- brilliant. From the get go this character does not mess around. And he only gets more and more interesting as the play progresses. Aaron is really one of the reasons I can stick with this play instead of walking out and dismissing it as just a revenge tragedy (Though I will go on record and say that I find MOST revenge tragedies wildly interesting and at least a few characters I really love/feel intrigued by, etc. But you know what revenge tragedy I hated? Munich. I walked out of that film like 2 hours early. and I didn't even have my own ride home! Sometimes Titus feels a little like Munich to me, but then the language and some of the characters remind me it is SO. MUCH. BETTER.)
In come Tamora's living sons- Chiron and Demetrius and we find they are fighting over wanting Lavinia. We hear echoes of Richard III (I actually think you hear echoes of a lot of great plays in this one, images and phrases Shakespeare recycles later in his career and polishes a bit)
She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd;
She is a woman, therefore may be won;
She is Lavinia, therefore must be loved.
Then Aaron nudges them a step further and suggests instead of fighting over Lavinia that they both work together to rape her:
 AARON 
Would you had hit it too!
Then should not we be tired with this ado.
Why, hark ye, hark ye! and are you such fools
To square for this? would it offend you, then
That both should speed?
CHIRON 
Faith, not me.
DEMETRIUS 
Nor me, so I were one.
AARON 
 For shame, be friends, and join for that you jar: '
Tis policy and stratagem must do
 That you affect; and so must you resolve,  
That what you cannot as you would achieve,  
You must perforce accomplish as you may.
 Take this of me: Lucrece was not more chaste  
Than this Lavinia, Bassianus' love...
And strike her home by force, if not by words:
This way, or not at all, stand you in hope.
The boys think this is an excellent idea and start planning. The build up to this event is horrifying and so good at creating tension.
2.2
A very short scene establishing the wedding celebration/hunt that Titus referenced before. Titus greets everyone and an either sex-exhausted or else hung over Saturninus responds:
Many good morrows to your majesty;  
Madam, to you as many and as good:  
I promised your grace a hunter's peal.
SATURNINUS 
And you have rung it lustily, my lord;
Somewhat too early for new-married ladies.
Demetrius closes out the scene with remounting the creepy sexual violence tension:
Chiron, we hunt not, we, with horse nor hound, But hope to pluck a dainty doe to ground.

2.3
We start this scene with Aaron hiding a bag of gold and then getting ready to get it on with Tamora. There's a speech that reminds me of Theseus and Hippolyta in Midsummer:
 Aaron, let us sit,  
And, whilst the babbling echo mocks the hounds,
Replying shrilly to the well-tuned horns,  
As if a double hunt were heard at once,  
Let us sit down and mark their yelping noise;
Shakespeare liked his dog images... (Someone write a book on Shakespeare's dogs. you know that would sell. or is there one already? I'm not bothering to look that up...)
Madam, though Venus govern your desires, Saturn is dominator over mine:
That sentence is awesome so I felt the need to highlight, now let's get into the details of the revenge set up:
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.  
Hark Tamora, the empress of my soul,  
Which never hopes more heaven than rests in thee,
This is the day of doom for Bassianus:
 His Philomel must lose her tongue to-day,  
Thy sons make pillage of her chastity  
And wash their hands in Bassianus' blood.
Shortly thereafter Bassianus and Lavinia happen on the scene and catch Tamora in a compromising position with Aaron. There's some racism and slut shaming thrown about but what I think is notable is how BOLD Lavinia is, what a strong character she is, and how she is bold in talking about sexual things:
TAMORA 
Saucy controller of our private steps! 
Had I the power that some say Dian had, 
Thy temples should be planted presently
With horns, as was Actaeon's...
LAVINIA  
Under your patience, gentle empress,
'Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning;
And to be doubted that your Moor and you
Are singled forth to try experiments:
Jove shield your husband from his hounds to-day!
'Tis pity they should take him for a stag.
Tamora then gives a speech to Chiron and Demetrius weirdly making an excuse for why they should attack the newlyweds, as if others could hear her, when she could just sick them on Lavinia and Bassianus for no reason at all:
Revenge it, as you love your mother's life, Or be ye not henceforth call'd my children.
And her children listen:
 DEMETRIUS 
This is a witness that I am thy son. 
[Stabs BASSIANUS] 
CHIRON 
And this for me, struck home to show my strength. 
[Also stabs BASSIANUS, who dies]
Based on those stage directions alone you get the difference between seeing this play and reading it. death death death!
Once they are done with Bassianus they go after Lavinia
CHIRON 
An if she do, I would I were an eunuch.
Drag hence her husband to some secret hole,
And make his dead trunk pillow to our lust.
TAMORA 
But when ye have the honey ye desire,
Let not this wasp outlive, us both to sting.
WHOAH. did you READ THAT?! It doesn't get much darker than raping a girl on her husband's dead body. GEORGE RR MARTING AIN'T GOT NOTHING ON THAT SHIT. The red wedding looks like a fricken tea party compared to this.
Lavinia then begs for pity and Tamor proves herself what I think to be the worst villain in shakespeare
 LAVINIA 
The lion moved with pity did endure
 To have his princely paws pared all away:
Some say that ravens foster forlorn children,
The whilst their own birds famish in their nests:
O, be to me, though thy hard heart say no,
Nothing so kind, but something pitiful!
TAMORA 
I know not what it means; away with her!
LAVINIA 
O, let me teach thee! for my father's sake,
That gave thee life, when well he might have slain thee,
Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears.
TAMORA 
Hadst thou in person ne'er offended me, Even for his sake am I pitiless...
Therefore, away with her, and use her as you will,
The worse to her, the better loved of me.
THE WORST. Aside from maybe killing children. What kind of woman lets another woman be sexually assaulted and mutilated, and takes it as a sign of love from her children?! sick sick sick. Lavinia again begs for mercy:
 LAVINIA 
'Tis present death I beg; and one thing more
That womanhood denies my tongue to tell:
O, keep me from their worse than killing lust,
And tumble me into some loathsome pit,
Where never man's eye may behold my body:
Do this, and be a charitable murderer.
TAMORA 
So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee:
No, let them satisfy their lust on thee.
Lavinia sees there's really no hope but she at least goes down with a fight
LAVINIA 
No grace? no womanhood? Ah, beastly creature!
The blot and enemy to our general name!
Confusion fall--
CHIRON 
Nay, then I'll stop your mouth.
Creepy town that we see the beginning of the struggle onstage instead of her running and their chasing her off. As an audience member, don't you feel a LITTLE complicit that you didn't get up and stop the action? Then there's a whole bit about some of Titus' other countless sons falling into a pit and they are going to blame the murder on them. Saturninus enters and they have an easy time tricking him into believing their version of the story:
 TAMORA 
Then all too late I bring this fatal writ,
The complot of this timeless tragedy;
And wonder greatly that man's face can fold
In pleasing smiles such murderous tyranny. 
[She giveth SATURNINUS a letter]
SATURNINUS [Reads]
 'An if we miss to meet him handsomely-- Sweet huntsman, Bassianus 'tis we mean-- Do thou so much as dig the grave for him: Thou know'st our meaning. Look for thy reward Among the nettles at the elder-tree
Aaron reveals the gold he buried at the beginning of the scene, and Tamora shows herself a part that is really hard for actresses because the writing is so painfully over the top here that if you don't have a director willing to play it for absurd comedy you are screwed:
What, are they in this pit? O wondrous thing! How easily murder is discovered!
And then we get to what I think is the most horrifying scene of all
2.4
There's really nothing much to say about the most terrifying stage direction I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot of them. I kind of have a love affair with Alan Dessen's Dictionary of Stage Directions in English Drama)
[Enter DEMETRIUS and CHIRON with LAVINIA, ravished; her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out]
What's worse is Chiron and Demetrius continue to mock poor Lavinia:
CHIRON 
Go home, call for sweet water, wash thy hands.
DEMETRIUS 
She hath no tongue to call, nor hands to wash;
And so let's leave her to her silent walks.
CHIRON 
An 'twere my case, I should go hang myself.  
DEMETRIUS 
If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord.
This is where I am always so close to walking out of the play. Why I thought I could never like Titus again. And then my would-be big brother Zac put it this way- Shakespeare makes you look at the horrors of rape in a way that could maybe bring some good. Yes, not every rape or sexual assault in our culture leads to the victim looking like something out of a Tim Burton movie:

but damn it, who has experienced sexual violence and DIDN'T feel like their voice was taken from them as well, like they were silenced? I think this is part of why I want to be designated as a Linklater teacher. To help women from these situations reclaim their voices. Note it as one of my life's missions.So, yes, Zac showed me that Titus illustrates that poignantly, and in a way that, if we can get past all the immature "surprised" and rape jokes associated with this part, we can learn from. We should be moved the way Marcus is when he finds her:
If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me!
If I do wake, some planet strike me down,  
That I may slumber in eternal sleep!
It's amazing that the most BEAUTIFUL and gut wrenching language in the show is related to Lavinia. This scene is also a good lesson in implied stage direction:
Why dost not speak to me?  
Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,  
Like to a bubbling fountain stirr'd with wind,  
Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,
...
 Ah, now thou turn'st away thy face for shame!
 And, notwithstanding all this loss of blood,
As from a conduit with three issuing spouts,
Y'all, Marcus goes through so many stages of grief in this one speech, so if you are looking for a really stunning new monologue, this can show off an incredible range when done well. dibelief, horror, anger, despair, and an incredible amount of love
O, that I knew thy heart; and knew the beast,
That I might rail at him, to ease my mind!
Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd,
Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is.
And this is why Titus is an important play for me- because I have that same reaction. The desire to just scream at the people who do this, to never forgive them and come up with some marvelous vengeance, and this play shows- WHAT DOES THAT DO?! Does it bring back lavinia's hands or tongue or unscarred emotional life?! We'll talk about this more as the play progresses:
O, had the monster seen those lily hands  
Tremble, like aspen-leaves, upon a lute,  
And make the silken strings delight to kiss them,
 He would not then have touch'd them for his life!  
Or, had he heard the heavenly harmony  
Which that sweet tongue hath made,
 He would have dropp'd his knife, and fell asleep  
As Cerberus at the Thracian poet's feet.
SEE WHAT I MEAN?! It's beautiful. But not as beautiful as the part that comes after:
Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee  
O, could our mourning ease thy misery!
I would that more people would mourn with the victims of sexual violence instead of shaming them, not believing them, or awkwardly leaving them alone because they don't want to deal with the trauma. Because while mourning does not erase the misery, i believe it DOES ease it, even if just a fraction of a little bit. And that is why this speech is my favorite part of the play.
And now A SPECIAL REQUEST:

Want to help people who have survived sexual violence, or just help prevent it in the first place?! Check out THIS INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN and help RAINN make a difference. Personally, I think every production of titus should donate to some kind of organization like RAINN or else a violence prevention place or SOMETHING. Make it happen. Art+ Social Justice = My life mission!