Titus Andronicus

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https://www.theatreworks.org.au/2025/titus-andronicus

Date Reviewed: 13/11/2025

Titus Andronicus was hugely popular when first staged in 1592, though over time it became one of Shakespeare’s most mocked works. T. S. Eliot even dismissed it as “one of the stupidest and most uninspired plays ever written.”

Th’Unguarded Duncan’s new staging at Theatre Works, co-directed by Kevin Hopkins and Claire Nicholls, proves that in the right hands, this tragedy of violence, madness, and revenge can feel startlingly modern. They embrace the play’s extremity with a surreal, nightmarish vision that provokes while never shying away from moments of self-aware humour. The result is a production that dares to find beauty in brutality and wit in despair.

Beneath its gore and grotesquery lies a story of a father’s grief, a daughter’s suffering, and a world consumed by vengeance. Three of Titus’ sons are killed in action, while 21 others have fallen on the battlefield. Determined not to lose the rest, Titus offers his own hand in exchange for the lives of his two sons, wrongfully sent to prison. The messenger returns with both his sons' severed heads and his hand “as a gift.”

His daughter, Lavinia, is brutally raped and mutilated, her tongue and hands cut off. In turn, Titus kills the sons of his enemy, Tamora, and serves them to her as a dish. It is Shakespeare at his most unflinching — and most absurd.

At the centre stands Josh Morrison, a towering presence as Titus Andronicus. His performance is deeply nuanced—his sonorous voice and commanding presence charting the character’s transformation from noble general to grief-stricken father. Opposite him, Joanna Halliday’s Lavinia is luminous. Her silent suffering, conveyed through astonishingly expressive eyes, speaks volumes long after her tongue is gouged and her hands cut. She embodies pain, dignity, and defiance without uttering a word.

The infamous rape of Lavinia is rendered with restraint. Rather than resorting to shock, the scene unfolds as a haunting choreographed sequence—her body lifted and carried away in a swirl of stylised movement that evokes both ritual and tragedy. The horror is palpable but not gratuitous.

The ensemble work, such as in the rape scene, is exceptional — a testament to Th’Unguarded Duncan’s psychophysical approach to theatre. The company melds martial arts, moving meditation, and physical storytelling into a hypnotic rhythm of violence and grace.

The minimalist set design by Hopkins and Nicholls, centred on a circular platform that rises and falls, becomes a living symbol of the endless cycle of revenge consuming Rome. Beneath it, Max Hopkins’ industrial score thrums like a heartbeat of doom, underscoring the descent into madness. As the play spirals toward its grisly finale, light and shadow twist across the stage like ghosts, creating a surreal hellscape that mirrors Titus’s unravelling mind.

Moments of dark humour punctuate the carnage, grounding the bloodshed in absurdity. The final banquet, where Titus serves Tamora her own sons, unfolds like a grotesque nod to Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. People die within the circle in ways that are both horrifying and hilarious, capturing Shakespeare’s morbid irony in a scene that is equal parts feast and farce.

In the end, Titus Andronicus at Theatre Works is a triumph of imagination over gore. Hopkins and Nicholls transform Shakespeare’s most violent play into a psychological, symbolic, and strangely beautiful meditation on revenge, grief, and the cost of cruelty.

Highlights

• Josh Morrison’s commanding performance as Titus: majestic, broken, and magnetic.
  
• Joanna Halliday’s Lavinia: heartbreaking in her stillness and expressiveness.
  
• A cast of extremely talented actors: Helen Hopkins (Marcia Andronicus), Victoria Haslam (Tamora), Jake Crawford (Lucius/Mutius), Scott Jackson (Saturnius), Rajenda Moodley (Aaron), James William (Bassianus/Aemillius), James Cerche (Chrion), Belle White (Mutius/Young Lucius), Jessica Stanley (Quintus/Nurse/First Goth), Seon Williams (Demetrius).
• Striking ensemble choreography: merging violence with movement and ritual.
• Inventive visual metaphors: blood shown through red wool, violence through motion.
• Moments of bleak humour that acknowledge the absurdity of revenge
• Each murder and death is unique and an artform in its own right.

Who It’s For

• Lovers of bold, physical theatre and innovative Shakespeare adaptations.
  
• Audiences drawn to dark, surreal storytelling with psychological depth.
  
• Those who appreciate stylised stagecraft and ensemble-based performance.
  
• Anyone ready to confront violence, vengeance, and absurdity, served with theatrical flair.
  

What we wish they had: A tally with the body count.

Shows program: Titus Andronicus Show Program | Theatre Works

The performances of Titus Andronicus run at Theatre Works in St Kilda through to 22 November, 7:30pm

Reviewed by Mary Sinanidis