The Lamentable Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: Applause First Folio Editions (Applause Shakespeare Library Folio Texts) Review

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(More customer reviews)Now that the film "Titus" is about to open, I thought I had best hear a recorded version of the complete play to keep my mind clear during what is bound to be a perversion. Of course, many consider "TitusAndronicus" a perversion anyway; and to tell the truth, I do get alittle queasy during the various mutilations that make the deaths at theend a relief rather than a shock.But accepting the play on its ownterms, you will find the reissue on tape of the 1966 Caedmon recording of (CF 277) possibly the best directed of the entireclassic series. Howard Sackler has a bunch of professionals onhand and helets them (with one exception) tear up the scenery. Poor Judy Dench, whohas so little to say as Lavinia before the plot makes her say no more, canonly make pathetic noises for most of the play until her final death cry.The evil brothers, played here by John Dane and Christopher Guinee, are notonly evil but sarcastically so--and this works on a recording as it mightnot on the stage.Perhaps Maxine Audley's Tamora is a bit too WickedWitch of the West now and then; but her co-partner in evil, Aron the Moor,is brought to life by Anthony Quayle in a role he made famous on stage,going even further in the outright enjoyment of his ill-doing. Yes, thisplay can easily raise laughs and takes an Olivier to keep the audience inthe tragic mood. (Reports are that he did it so well that some audiencemembers became ill and had to leave.)
Which brings us to MichaelHordern's Titus. Hodern is a fine actor but not a great one. He sufferswell but not grandly. I am surprised that his Big Moment--"I am thesea"--is lost among all the other images in that speech. But anyonecan direct someone else's play.This recording, soon to be rivaled byone in the Arkangel series, is definitely worth having for Quayle'sperformance alone.

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If there has ever been a groundbreaking edition that likewise returns the reader to the original Shakespeare text, it will be THE APPLAUSE FOLIO TEXTS. If there has ever been an accessible version of the Folio, it is this edition, set for the first time in modern fonts. The Folio is the source of all other editions. The Folio text forces us to re-examine the assumptions and prejudices which have encumbered over four hundred years of scholarship and performance. Notes refer the reader to subsequent editorial interventions, and offer the reader a multiplicity of interpretations. Notes also advise the reader on variations between Folios and Quartos. Prepared and annotated by Neil Freeman, Head, Graduate Directing Program, University of British Columbia.

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