Titus Andronicus

William Shakespeare - History's most influentional playwright, who's literature seems very close to Maureen's heart, especially if the amount of Shakespeare projects she has been involved in is anything to go by. This page is dedicated to Maureen's role as Tamora in the stage adaptation of Titus Andronicus at the RST, Stratford-upon-Avon in 2003. Titus Andronicus As summer fades into autumn, the RSC ends the season with a riot of colour at Stratford - well just red, blood red, and lots of it. In the revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare took the Elizabethan's love of on stage violence to the limit, marrying gore and grief and mixing in black humour. It's a play which has been more out of favour than in over the centuries and is rarely staged - a notable exception was Deborah Warner's feted production in 1987- but with issues of revenge very much alive at home and abroad, Titus Andronicus is timely. David Bradley is Titus Andronicus, Joe Dixon is Aron, and Maureen Beattie, (who won great acclaim for her Medea in Theatre Babel's production) is the goth Queen Tamora. "There is a rumour at Stratford that they were compiling a faint count for each night" Kirsty Wark. Titus Andronicus continues in rep at the RSC in Stratford before going to Newcastle Theatre Royal in December. Titus Andronicus - In this the most macabre of Shakespeare's plays, family feud leads to rape, mutilation and murder. Set against a decadent and disintegrating Roman Empire, Titus Andronicus initiates a cycle of butchery, sparked by his horrific thirst for revenge and retribution. An ageing Roman general, Titus returns to Rome in triumph after his sixth victory over the Goths. He brings with him their queen Tamora. To avenge the death of his sons he sacrifices her son, Alarbus. Her revenge is to have her remaining sons rape Titus's daughter and cut out her tongue so she is unable to name her assailants. Horror upon horror punctuates this tragic depiction of a society's downward spiral into the most profound immorality. Presented on the RST stage for the first time since 1981 Bill Alexander who returns to the RSC for the first time since his celebrated production of The School of Night by Peter Whelan directs this play of barbaric ferocity. Maureen Beattie makes a heaving-breasted and glitteringly charismatic Tamora, Queen of the Goths, and tucks into her son-burger with ghastly relish. John Lloyd Fillingham is an unforgettably craven, decadent Emperor, while Joe Dixon's commanding, witty performance as the wicked Moor, Aron, suggests that he would be equally at home playing Iago or Othello. ----------------------------- MURDERS POSE A MEATY PROBLEM The props department at the RSC has faced a tough problem during preparations for one of the bloodiest of Shakespeare's plays. The character of Tamora in Titus Andronicus has to eat a pie made from the bodies of her murdered two sons. For each performance a special pie has to be made by the stage crew. They have to create one that looks realistic - but face the added challenge that actress Maureen Beattie, who plays Tamora, does not eat meat. Instead, they are experimenting with salmon and vegetables in the search for the perfect pie. Graham Humphrey, RSC props technician said: "We need to make sure the pie looks as if it contains her dead sons, so we are experimenting with the consistencies of different vegetables." Maureen is also directing a show for the RSC's TOP Summer Season called Perfect Pie. The production has one free performance on Friday at 8.15pm. Yum! ---------------------------- Set against a decadent and disintegrating Roman Empire, Titus Andronicus plays out an explosive chain of events as horror is heaped upon horror in this epic saga of revenge and retribution. Shakespeare's rarely performed tragedy of barbaric ferocity is presented on the RST main stage for the first time since 1981 T. S. ELIOT dismissed Titus Andronicus as one of the stupidest and most uninspired plays ever, but he was writing in 1934, before the 20th century had shown us how barbaric it could be. You don't even have to cite Hitler, Pol Pot or the Bosnian Serbs. What happens to Shakespeare's Romans; rape, mutilation, excising of hands and tongues was happening in yet another African tribal war just the other day. What's disconcerting about Titus is that it doesn't earnestly condemn the serial atrocities it evokes. True, scholars make moral excuses for the play. Sometimes they claim that it's about the title character's doomed attempts to uphold the traditional values in a depraved Rome. But the tone is more gloatingly grotesque than tragic. Let's face it: the young Shakespeare was pandering to audiences who liked bear baitings, hangings and Marlowe's Jew of Malta. Even Bill Alexander's new production, which opts for gravity rather than black comedy, leaves you feeling you're watching a game of tit-for-tat that's unluckily played by adults, not children. The victorious general, Titus, orders the killing of the Gothic queen Tamora's eldest son. Having married the Roman emperor, Saturninus, she takes her revenge by letting her surviving sons ravish and mangle Titus,s daughter, Lavinia. And so it goes on. You have killed my boys and tricked me into sawing off my hand? OK, I shall bake your sons in a pie and make you eat it. Yah boo! A woman near me tottered out when Eve Myles crazily twitching Lavinia weaved about with a sack containing her fathers hand dangling from her teeth; but, even when David Bradley's Titus appeared in a bloody chefs uniform carrying his cannibal ragout, the horrors were not unduly emphatic The staging is simple, sombre, the acting measured, careful. A vast mask hovers over the proceedings, an archaic smile or smirk beneath its black, empty eyes. It is some god, relishing what might be a sneak preview of Lear. Well, when Bradley's Titus jams a wreath on his head and rants about justice as he stalks round that wilderness of tigers, Rome, he might almost be the mad Lear at Dover. His is a commanding performance from the first: severe, ascetic, his long bony face combining with the long, thin nose that stretches to his chin to suggest an age-old hawk or wizened, watchful eagle. And when he despairs, it is the despair of a man who has seen it all: grim, bleak, mocking, self-mocking. Add John Lloyd Fillingham's flabby, infantile emperor, Maureen Beattie as a Tamora whose very irises glint with vindictive menace, and Joe Dixon bringing all his sensuality to her lover Aron's triumphant villainies, and you have a revival that leaves you with mixed feelings. Glad you braved its darkness, glad you left it behind. ---------------------------- Behind the scenes of Titus Andronicus with Maureen Previous Knowledge of the Play I saw the production Gregory Doran directed in at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg (South Africa) with Anthony Sher and Sello Maake ka Ncube when it played briefly at the National's Cottesloe Theatre a few years ago. First Impressions of Tamora To be absolutely honest I really don't know who Tamora is. When they heard I was going to meet the director Bill Alexander about Titus Andronicus, everyone said "well you've got to play Tamora". But when I read the play, I said "Why? Why would I want to play Tamora?" I want to stress this is entirely my problem. The rehearsal period and working with Bill has been fantastic - Bill's done a brilliant job with this production and I know I am surrounded by fine people who are deeply excited about the play and who love it and believe in it passionately and David Bradley's both a man of genius and one of the nicest people on the planet - but playing Tamora is a leap of faith. I haven't found her and I don't know if I ever will but I am surrounded by fantastic people who I trust implicitly and I simply make the leap of faith each night. Trying to Find Tamora I did very little research because Bill had done so much, which he shared with us at the start of rehearsals. The play is not set in the real world - it is a concocted mixture of Shakespeare's (well-informed) perception of Roman values and ancient traditions of the gods mixed with Shakespeare's own, real, Roman Catholic background. This season I am also playing Queen Elizabeth in Richard III who did exist and I did do a lot of research about her. But in the made-up world of Titus Andronicus I didn't really feel it would help. Instead, I felt it was my job to make the play come alive and to play what was on the page for each scene and each situation that Tamora finds herself in. With Bill's consent, I invented a back story for Tamora, in which she didn't have a husband and that all her sons were by different men, whom she hand-picked for their genes! Lilith The Goths were pagan in origin, though they did later become Christian Romans and I wanted to find a goddess for Tamora. I chose Lilith because I read something once which said you had to be very careful when you invited Lilith to dinner because she always came with apocalyptic tragedy! That's why I have a snake tattoo on my neck. We think of snakes as being a bit sly and you've got to watch them because you never know when they might strike next. But they're also associated with wisdom and of course with Eve and the Garden of Eden. Tamora's Function Aron is there as the archetypical cruel man who leads the others into terrible acts of vengeance, so I suppose you could argue that Tamora is there as the catalyst. In the first scene, she says to Saturninus, "you let me alone and one day I'll find a way to massacre the Andronici." But the next time we see her, it's Aron who's hatched the plan and is about to set it in motion because he loves Tamora. He is completely devoted to her (in rather a spaced way) and determined to do something to assuage her. So oddly, although you would think she is somebody who makes things happen, she is really a catalyst I suppose to Aron,who does actually makes things happen. I think she would eventually come up with something but I think she would probably do something like invite them all to a big banquet and poison all their dinners and once they'd cleared their plates she would have said, "By the way, just to let you know that in half an hour you will all be dead." A Female Villain Whilst Tamora has a specific purpose in the play, there is no fulfilment for her. A really dreadful, appalling, terrible thing happens to Tamora at the beginning of the play when her eldest son Alarbus, her son and heir, is sacrificed and mutilated. After that, she comes the villain of the piece - and it's hard not to play her like Cruella De Vil or the Wicked Witch of the West. I think the fact that Tamora is a woman makes the part particularly difficult. Her cruelty is the more abhorrent because she's female and a mother. I couldn't find someone to model her on: the Myra Hindleys of this world for instance tend to be led - they're not the perpetrators. That's not an excuse and it doesn't make them nice people. But there is no exposition for her and I can't think of anyone I know who would behave as Tamora does. Looking for Tamora's Motivation That said, you can understand what motivates her and understand her desire for revenge but I do find the part hard because her story - I think - is so unfulfilled. There's the odd hint in the piece to remind you why she's doing what she does and there's her lover Aron, whom I think she genuinely loves - but they only have one scene together. Shakespeare doesn't explore Tamora fully (but then the play is called Titus Andronicus). Tamora comes on in the first scene and then she's off for an hour. I find it hard to find something to love in her - she loved her sons but Myra Hindley would have loved her sons too if she'd had any. As an actor you always search to find the reason behind why the character you are playing does what they do and whythey say what they say. Sometimes it is difficult to get hold of the reason and really make it your own but you have to if you're going to play it night after night and make it real. Perhaps I'm too much of a rationalist for Tamora. The task is to reconcile all the elements - who said it was going to be easy! A Queen with Animalistic Intelligence Tamora is the ruling monarch of another country. In her first big speech ("Stay, Roman brethren"), she hopes that if she keeps talking, her enemies won't kill her son. She's not an intellectual, but she has a fierce animalistic intelligence. She's a queen and she doesn't plead with Titus - she tries to persuade him to allow Alarbus to live. She doesn't beg or prostitute herself, she just presents Titus with some very good arguments as to why he should rethink his decision. I think it's vitally important to establish that. She's a queen and she uses language. If she is just a wee scrubber who's been captured by the Goths then you have a problem. Attitude to Saturninus I think Tamora is really rather fond of Saturninus. I think once her plan to kill all the Andronici had been carried out successfully, she and Aron would rule - or whatever plan it is that she has got in her head. She marries Saturninus because that will enable her to massacre the Andronici and I think she's fond of him, the way one is fond a recalcitrant child. I love the way John Lloyd Fillingham plays Saturninus - it is fantastic, like a wee baby or a puppy. I think Tamora finds him delightful, if petulant - but a bit of petulance is hardly a hanging crime is it? She is not infatuated with him, nor does she love or lust after him. He is palpably incapable of running a corner shop let alone an empire. I think she finds him harmless and when it was all over, she'd keep him as a pet, make him nice things to wear and pop sweetmeats into his mouth. Tamora's attitude to Titus Tamora's attitude to Titus is one of total loathing. Absolute loathing. I think she thinks he is just the worst possible kind of human being. War is one thing and death in battle you can accept. But what Titus does to Alarbus is appalling,[in order to appease the gods for the spirits of the 22 sons Titus has lost in battle, he sacrifices Alarbus and cuts off his limbs]. The Romans prided themselves on not allowing human sacrifice, so what Titus does is way out of order, ultra-barbaric and it also means that Alarbus' soul will never rest. His soul will for ever wander in perpetual limbo or purgatory if you like, between Hades and this world. There is no more heinous crime. Tamora's Revenge The whole revenge scene is crazy but revenge is incredibly important to Tamora. She's a very good manipulator - she wants to capture Lucius and disperse the Goths (or at least turn them around). We used to play the scene as though the whole thing was quite good fun - we'll dress up in fancy clothes and go and see the old mad guy and have a bit of a laugh. But actually it's not a laugh at all despite the bizarre situation. For Tamora and the boys, it is absolutely essential that they pull it off. Actually what happens is that she helps Titus to do what he wants and she falls into his trap. The Manacles The manacles (chains) we wear in the first scene are very hard work and it's really difficult to deliver a big speech wearing the collar around my neck because it sits on my Adam's apple. But then it would be hard work if you were a prisoner - you have to find the balance between what would be real in that situation and what happens in terms of being an actor. I'm now so covered in bruises I look like the victim of domestic violence! Thank goodness the audience don't know - they shouldn't know what you go through. We did a lot of work on the chains because they make such a lot of noise and at one point Bill thought we'd have to cut them but I was really, really passionate that we should have chains and we're all glad now we kept them. Tamora's Costume The sackcloth I wear at the beginning is fantastic - when we all turned up on stage we looked like a catwalk show for Nicole Farhi! It's a lovely dress, rough linen, figure-skimming, very flattering. What a shame they had to take it away and break it down. When I'm dressed as a Roman, I have a corset made out of two boards or planks of wood, like a medieval corset which is painful if you have a bit of a bust! In the final scene, when I die slumped over the table, it dug into me so badly I had welts on my stomach. The people in wardrobe are so fantastic though and they very kindly made me a completely different corset which does the same job, only it's boned and has a bit of give in it. The costume has changed since the first preview - the colours I wear are darker and bloodier, so now the skirt is a deep Goth red, the peplum and the inset sleeves are now a slightly less deep red. The whole thing is much less 'girly' than it was - much more sophisticated and womanly. It sets up a wonderful contrast to the lovely pale pastel shades Lavinia wears. Using a Scottish Accent When I first met Bill he said just use your own voice and see what happens. I think using my own accent marks Tamora out as someone different and makes her somehow more earthy. My other role this season is Queen Elizabeth in Richard III and I play her with an English accent. She wears a tight bodice, has to hold herself upright, has to batten down her emotions - at first at least - and not allow people to see how she feels, which is very right for the period and right for the character. But Tamora is much more untrammelled and even though I wear a corset, which is Romanesque, the skirt is very free and I have bare feet in sandals. Queen Elizabeth wears her hair up and five hair pieces which weigh a ton but Tamora's hair is all over the place, her neck is bare and it is much easier to move around. I have a big placket in my sleeve which means I can move my arms freely - Tamora is flexible and it just seemed right with all that to use my own accent.