Titus Andronicus

Arkangel Shakespeare

By: William Shakespeare

Narrated by: David Troughton, Harriet Walter, Paterson Joseph, David Burke

Length: 2 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

The noble Titus returns victorious to Rome bringing Tamora, Queen of the Goths as his captive. When one of Tamora's sons is condemned to die, she vows revenge, and, aided by the villainous Aaron, she exacts a terrible retribution, inaugurating a grim cycle of rape, murder, and cannibalism. This macabre, often brilliant tragedy comes from the earliest stage of Shakespeare's dramatic career.

Titus is played by David Troughton and Tamora by Harriet Walter. Paterson Joseph is Aaron, and David Burke is Marcus.

Public Domain (P)2014 Blackstone Audio

My tears are now prevailing orators!

"And let me say, that never wept before,
My tears are now prevailing orators!"
- William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act III.1

Shakespeare's first Tragedy is not perfect. It is bloody, predictable, racist, and gratuitous to the extreme. However, it probably deserves better attention than it usually gets (well there is the Julie Taymor film). I think this early Shakespeare's villain (Aaron the Moor) is diabolical and fantastic. Yes, I'm not a fan of the easy way the moor (or often the Jew) becomes the bad guy in Shakespeare's plays, but I'm also not a fan (at all) of judging Shakespeare by a morality that the 21st century only so far corrects. We have plenty of racist motes in our own eyes, thank you very much. I love the wickedness of the Goth Queen Tamora. I love Titus and his brother Marcus. Again, the poetry is not fully mature. The plot is still a bit overripe and overwrought. But ye gads, Shakespeare's pen can still pull some dangerous couplets out of the air.

There were also several nice lines, specifically:

- "For shame, be friends, and join for that you jar.
'Tis policy and stratagem must do
That you affect; and so you must resolve,
That what you cannot as you would achieve,
You must perforce accomplish as you may.
- "Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee,
O, could our mourning ease thy misery!"
- "Let fools do good, and fair me call for grace,
Aaron will have his should black like his face."
- "Now is the time to storm; why art thou still?"
- "Can the son's eye behold his father bleed?
There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed!"
- "For when no friends are by, men praise themselves."
- "If one good deed in all my life I did,
I do repent it from my very soul."

Revenge is sweet

Grisly and unflinching and limited by a source material that is far from The Bards best work, the cast and direction nevertheless carry this to a near triumph. Titus is so ephemeral, at one moment murdering a son and another bewailing the lives of two others, at one moment sending messengers to Pluto to find Justice, another calmly revealing he has seen through the disguises of his tormentors, it is a challenge to make this man in any way unified. But this actor patches the extremes together with believability and pathos. A very worthy exploration of sorrow , madness and revenge

Gruesome story

Some parts of the play are cut out and this play is deeply disturbing. The kissing is quite loud and the content in this makes it hard to want to read more than once, but it is a good play. Would reccomend. Some argue Aaron’s character is racist but it’s nice to see the unexpected black main character role. This play is heavy on mommy issues and daddy issues.

lol the kisses were a little too high in the audio

I enjoyed this recording because this is a great play to use your imagination on.
Read along while you listen, maybe find a cheap edition with good notes like the Folger Shakespeare Library.

If you decide to see a live performance, don't be surprised if the first three rows get free ponchos for sitting in the Splash Zone.
there will be blood

Eye for an Eye

This is a hard story to stomach. Grusesome is the least of the summary. Base story, and one of evil. This is the least of my favorite works by Shakespeare. It was inspired in evil and it is hard to read, and hear. This is based on eye for an eye. Any human emotion and civility was had in the last pages of the work. Truly sad, never ever, do I ever want to read this again. A psychopath could be inspired by this.

dark and Intense

I can see why there was so much criticism in the past. the story seems too gruesome too twisted, but it is brilliantly writeyn and performed.

Such a violent play

I never really got the point of all the violence. I see why there are doubts if this is truly Shakespearean.

Snoring

I'm sorry but this is not Shakespeare's best work. It was 3 hours but it felt like 30

Thanks!

Loved it, really helped that I looked along with the complete text from open source. Really me understand the plot at first pass so I can have the knowledge for acting class.

A harrowing tale.

Found this quite hard to listen to as it is so relentlessly gruesome. Nevertheless it is faultlessly produced and another triumph in this series.

One to tick off the classic reading list

Always wanted to hear this. One of Shakespeares most insightful works. Revenge is a downward spiral to madness though not an easily set aside emotion

Gruesome but compelling

A gruesome play, which shows that Tarantino is not new. The performances made it a compelling study in the power of a desire for revenge and the terrible effects that emotion produces.