Theatre: Beware of Blood on Your Skinny Jeans by Lizzie McNeely

I like art that abides by a manifesto. It usually signals the presence of energetic youth wanting to stick dynamite up your ass. Complexities and ambiguities may get lost in the wake, but you’ll surely have fun.

The Red Light District theatre company has a manifesto: its productions will rise from the wreckage of urban life, crawl up your fire-escape and splatter blood on your skinny jeans. Appropriately, they’ve selected German dramatist Heiner Müller’s over-the-top adaptation of Shakespeare’s already over-the-top revenge tragedy, TITUS ANDRONICUS, to advance their cause.

If you’re unfamiliar with TITUS ANDRONICUS here’s a summary: twenty-one men die in battle, then two men are killed, a woman is raped, her tongue and hands are chopped off, she bleeds, three other men are killed, another hand is chopped off, a clown dies and then all hell breaks loose at a feast.

At one point a debate occurs about how to execute Aaron the Moor. Should the Goths fill him up with coals and shake him like a maraca or should they turn him into a human beehive? The captor flatly replies: “that’s elaborate.” The whole play is.

Brush up on the plot before you go. While James Wallis, as Titus, and Eve Wylden, as Tamera, impress with their diction, other actors’ lines are frequently rushed, hollow or swallowed up by ambient sounds.

The production doesn’t convey the power of Shakespeare’s language. It’s more pre-occupied with stylistic details, which is fine. The result is a creative, raunchy and fascinating production.

Here, Imperial Rome and the Goths are homeless gangs of half-insane drug addicts. Beggars harass the audience. Personified rape is decked in a penis hat. Amputations are artfully executed using caution tape. The emperor wears a Superman baby tee. Flashlights serve for lighting. Aaron is in blackface, as is his dolly-baby. Director Ted Witzel has made bold, and often inspired, choices.

This fresh theatre company deserves your attention. While its youthfulness causes a few flaws, it’s also the source of its strength. This is not Shakespeare on the Stratford stage. This is Shakespeare for the city. TITUS ANDRONICUS runs till September 8th at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse. See www.theredlightdistrict.ca for details.