About the show: Widely thought of as Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedy,   Titus Andronicus takes us down into the depths of humanity's most vile traits and revels in the horrors contained therein. It tells the story of a Roman general, returned from a terrible war, who becomes embroiled in a circle of bloody revenge with his enemies. Titus Andronicus teaches us the fruitless nature of revenge and the hollow satisfaction of twisted justice.

We welcome Director James Wallis to Hart House Theatre for his debut project with us, although he is certainly no stranger the the work of the Bard!

James is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Shakespeare BASH'd and the Director of their productions of Romeo and Juliet, Love's Labour's Lost, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Merry Wives of Windsor, King John, and numerous staged readings. James just finished his second season at The Stratford Festival as part of the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction where he was the assistant director for Macbeth with Antoni Cimolini, Bunny by Hannah Moscovitch with Sarah Stanley, and Romeo and Juliet with Scott Wentworth. Next summer he will return for his third season to assistant direct Julius Caesar with Scott Wentworth.

When asked what makes Titus Andronicus relevant and important to a modern audience, James had this to say:

" Titus Andronicus is a play about Revenge, which may not be the most conscious concept we interact with everyday, but it remains part of our cultural landscape through movies and television. But Titus is also about the absolute grief that comes from complete horror. Those concepts seem ripe to explore in our world. But how do we interact, as an audience, with such violence?

 

Historically, since World War II, the story of Titus and his daughter Lavinia have begun to seem so real and present. The shock and disgust that we are left with is tempered by a feeling of the "grotesque," an inversion where the violence of the play is poetically accessible, which makes the horror seem almost more real. This, on top of the sheer spectacle of the piece, makes Titus all the more available: a play with intense reality mixed with carnivalesque absurdity."

Joining James on the production team are design team Holy Meyer-Dymny (sets), Allie Marshall (costumes), Melissa Joakim (lights) and Tim Lindsay  (sound).

Preliminary Set Model by Holly Myer-Dymny

To interview the director or our production team, or to arrange a tour of the build-in-progress, please call the media contact listed below.

Preliminary Set Model by Holly Myer-Dymny

Inspiration images for costume design provided by Allie Marshall