Revenge, and the pursuit thereof, has intriguing effects on the mind and costs that stretch beyond the material world said Matthew Brumlow, professional actor and director of “Titus Andronicus.”
He said it was in part for this reason he chose to direct this brutal Shakespeare play. Brumlow’s adaptation of “Titus” can be seen at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 2-4, Feb. 9 and 11 at 2 p.m., Feb 5 and 12 at the University of Idaho Hartung Theatre.
“I think it’s one of the most interesting Shakespeare plays there is,” said second year MFA performance candidate Lilia Housh- mand, who will portray Tamora.
Alex Wendel, who will act as Marcus in the production, said it is one of Shake- speare’s least popular plays, as one of his earlier and bloodier works.
Brumlow said because of this few people have produced the play, which he said is part of what drew him to it.
He said “Titus” was Shakespeare’s way to “Out-Tarantino the Tarantinos,” such as famous revenge-tragedy playwrights Chris- topher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. However, he said the play is unique among revenge- tragedies of the era not only because of the play’s excessive violence, but also because of its examination of the human psyche.
“Rather than it just being this gore-fest, he started to really dig deep into why do people pursue these paths and what is the, what is the cost of that?” he said.
Brumlow said it is beneficial to examine “Titus” in context, considering revenge- tragedies were popular during Shake- speare’s budding years. He said “Titus” is one of the more underrated of Shake- speare’s plays. He said he can see multiple parallels between “Titus” and the Shake- speare’s later tragedies.
Brumlow said in his adaptation the focus will be even more on how the pursuit of revenge affects the characters involved. He said this entails showing more private moments with Titus and Tamora as well as examining how the violence effects Titus’s grandchild, who will be a girl rather than a boy in Brumlow’s version.
“I’m interested in what’s going on inside the mind of these characters, not just what’s happening to them on the outside,” Brumlow said.
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He said he wants to examine the dynamic of the grandchild in the revenge story and how the brutality and violence of revenge has a “generational cost.”
Brumlow said he chose to make the child a girl to contrast between Titus’s relation- ships with her and his daughter Lavinia and also to increase the number of female char- acters in the predominantly male play.
Houshmand said her part as Tamora challenges her to explore multiple roles, such as mother, queen and warrior.
“I feel like my relationship with Tamora is just trying to connect with where I have felt injustice in my life and then just tapping into the dangerous part of me that I keep a strong control over most of the time,” she said.
Brumlow said, as both an actor and di- rector, he believes if actors can perform Shakespeare well, they can perform any- thing. Wendel said Brumlow’s excitement for the text has spread to the others involved in the play.
“I love Shakespeare. I could have tried to do ‘Hamlet’ or ‘MacBeth’, but I felt like, I just kept coming back to ‘Titus’ because the world right now feels a little unsettled to me,” Brumlow said.
Brumlow said the play is very relevant, and while Americans may view the play as unrealistic in its brutality, the violence and injustice is part of daily life in other areas in the world such as Syria.
He also said the savagery inherent to the play is present in everyone and could take over given the proper circumstances. Nevertheless, Brumlow said audiences should be warned the play is for mature audiences only.
“It deals with a lot of subject matter that can be triggering for people, but I also think the play can be a good opportunity to have some important conversations,” he said.
Brumlow said he sees theater as a cata- lyst for important conversations, and said he hopes to team with the Women’s Center and Diversity Center to further discussion about the themes presented in the play. The play also serves as a culmination of Brumlow’s pursuit of his MFA, as he will graduate at the end of the semester and return to acting.
“I really am grateful, thankful, feel very in- spired by the faculty staff and students in the theater department here. It really is a pleasure to go to work with them every day,” he said.
Nina Rydalch can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NinaRobin7