I was less than thrilled about taking my Shakespeare class this semester. Reading Romeo and Juliet in ninth grade had left a bad taste in my mouth, and A Midsummer's Night's Dream was made nightmarishly boring thanks to my senior year English teacher. However, Dr. McClain has changed my mind about Shakespeare entirely. I'm reading Shakespeare with much more ease, and I'm actually enjoying it. I owe my newly established appreciation to Titus Andronicus, which is credited as one of Shakespeare's worst plays ever. Go figure I'd cling to the lousy piece of drama; I'll leave the Hamlet stuff to the rest of you suckers.
Titus Andronicus is an over-the-top laughable gore fest. However, after recovering from laughter, one can see that as far as theme goes, there is actually a lot at work in the play. I honestly CAN'T say it's one of Shakespeare's best, but I do think it deserves much more respect than it currently receives. Also, practically every character is a villain, so it's naturally great!
Over the weekend, I rented Titus, Julie Taymor's film adaptation of the play. We had started watching it in class during the week, but I had to see it again. Most of the reviews I read criticized Taymor's work, but I thought it was an incredible interpretation. Not only did Taymor refrain from contorting Shakespeare's work into some hideous misinterpretation, but she also brought new life to it through fantastic artistry. Titus, despite its gore, is simply a beautiful film to watch.
The cast makes the work even more enjoyable. Anthony Hopkins brings some of his Hannibal character to the film, and Jessica Lange perfectly captures the loathsome Tamora. However, my favorite characters in the film adaptation turned out to be Saturninus, the ego-centric Roman emperor and Chiron, a, umm, sicko. Chiron is played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who plays bad boy roles so well. He's also pretty easy on the eyes, and you'll enjoy him even more if you have a thing for men in ladies' undergarments. And of course, there's Saturninus, played by the incredibly charming and camp Alan Cumming. Cumming plays Saturninus as a snotty brat of an emperor, and his portrayal is soooo good, I almost forgot about his resemblance to Mr. Herman.
I suppose that's all... I just wanted to plug this great piece of drama and its recent film re-make. Titus is definitely going on my Christmas wish-list.
Posted by Kate Cielinski at October 6, 2003 8:32 AMAs an undergrad, I wrote a paper called "Head-hewing, Limb-lopping and General Nastiness in Titus Andronicus," in which I compared it to the Friday the 13th films. I noticed that, unlike most other Shakespeare plays, the scenes don't end with rhymed couplets. But the dialogue often slips into rhyme when the nastiness happens. I remember asking my professor about that, and he interrupted the lecture to check the book to see whether I was right about the rhymes. It wasn't one of my best papers, but I certainly enjoyed writing it.
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at October 6, 2003 10:17 AM
