Titus Andronicus at Hampstead Theatre | Review

Mutilation, mastication, murder – This is Shakespeare as Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs“ (1992 exactly 400 hundred years after Titus Andronicus 1592 , Shakespeare’s “Abattoir Dogs”). It’s a full on orgy of blood and violence. There is mutilation, rape, murder and cannabalism on a truly epic and horrific scale. Max Webster’s direction turns the stage into an abbatoir. Bodies hang from meat hooks whilst victims have their throats slit like pigs, blood flows onto the stage like red rain, audience members sitting in the front rows are warned to expect to be splashed. Very loud sound effects startle, shake and scare the audience like being in an institution for the criminally insane. Stab wounds produce blood flows that resemble projectile vomiting. Bodies come wrapped in plastic sheets as in “The Wire” (2002). Body parts are delivered in black holdalls as used by Delivero drivers.

At one point the production goes all “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974) when a real chain saw is used in a ritual amptution. And if that is not enough to turn your stomach the coup de theatre is a scene reminiscent of of “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover” (1989) meets “Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (2007). This then is a Titus Andronicus that aims to give the audience an ETC, an enema and a cold bath.

Does it work? Is it convincing? Yes and no. Clearly there are elements in the play that can be glossed as Black Comedy. Like Marlowe’s contemporary “The Jew of Malta” (1590) Titus does have a plot that lends itself to farce and melodrama culminating in Black Comedy. The dinner table finale being the most obvious example. Or Aaron (Ken Nwosu) tricking Titus to sacrifice his hand to save his sons. It was good to hear the audience laugh at these moments. Theatre is entertainment and the Elizabethans enjoyed a good laugh. So in that sense this production can claim to be true to Shakespeare’s original intentions when writing the play in 1592. It’s an entertainmnet with grotesque scenes of comic cruelty. What I found unsettling was that this take on Titus felt like turning it into a cartoon. If it’s just a joke and the violence just Tarrantinoesque ersatz violence then its hard to really care about the characters. Aristotle’s Pity and Fear gets lost when the violence becomes just a vehicle for a laugh. The danger is reducing the play as a way of garnering laughs. Titus for me is a tragic-comedy with both parts having due emphasi. Both emotions ought to be kept in balance. Here the comic takes over and the most lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus gets lost somewhat in the frenzy of comic mayhem.

The posters for the show have a photography of Simon Russell Beale as Titus. However you may not see him as he is currently unwell (at the time of writing this review). Fear not, John Hodgkinson is a worthy replacement. One line he delivers stuck in my mind: “Rome is a wildnersess of tigers”. This image becomes the leitmotif for Max Webster’s in your face interpretation. The ensemble move around like tigers hunting their prey. Hunting, abbatoirs and meat eating link the scenes of the play to unify the action. For me “The Tiger that Comes to Tea“ meets “The Mad Hatters Tea Party” comes to mind again and again.

Hodgkinson really gets into his stride once he feins madness to deceive Queen Tamora (Wendy Kwehj) and the Emperor Saturninus (Max Bennett). He makes full use of the freedom playing “mad“ allows him. Wearing an outfit that looks like a cross between a psychiatric straight jacket and a piped double breasted chefs jacket he Hannibal Lecter’s his way around the dinner table inviting his guests to eat his homemade pie. Wendy Kweh’s Queen Tamora is impressive. Her asides are Laurence Olivieresque in their withering put downs of her husband, the baby like thumb sucking Saturninus. For me the stand out performance was that of Ken Nwosu. He brought the Moor Aaron to life. If Shylock is the racialised stereotype of The Jew in Shakespeare then the Moor is the African equivalent. Counter intuitively, you might say, Ken Nwosu embraces the stereotype and revels in the opportunity to be a villain. He succeeds in creating that most elusive of characters : the vivacious likeable villain. He does such wicked deeds with a chutzpah that can’t but be admired. Like a Millwall fan “no one likes him but he doesn’t care“.

I’ve already mentioned his hand trick vis a via Titus but he also despatches Titus’s two sons with comic aplomb. And he goes down fighting. When invited to repent , he admirably sticks to his guns and says “… no I wish I had done more evil“. A truly fascinating character that is as recogniasble today as it was in 1592. That’s because human nature doesn’t change. And that is why Titus Andronicus still intrigues, enthralls and appalls in equal measure and will go on doing as long as there are theatres, actors, directors and most importantly audiences that want to experience the human condition warts and all.

Review by John O’Brien

The war may be over, but the violence has just begun.

When victorious general Titus Andronicus executes his enemy’s son in a merciless show of vengeance, he has no idea of the evil his actions will incite. As the two sides trade violent acts of retribution, one man revels in the bloodbath.

Demetrius – Jeremy Ang Jones
Saturninus – Max Bennett
Chiron – Marlowe Chan-Reeves
Martius / Messenger / Movement Captain – Danny Collins
Quintus / Aemilius – Maximus Evans
Marcia Andronicus – Emma Fielding
Titus Andronicus – John Hodgkinson
Bassianus / Publius – Thomas Josling
Tamora – Wendy Kweh
Lucius – Joel MacCormack
Alarbus / Leader of the Goths / Fight Captain – Jerone Marsh-Reid
Aaron – Ken Kwosu
Nurse / Goth – Sharita Oomeer
Lavinia – Letty Thomas
Young Lucius – Charlie Banks / Osian Salter

Director – Max Webster
Designer – Joanna Scotcher
Lighting Designer – Lee Curan
Sound Designer – Tingying Dong
Composer – Matthew Herbert
Musical Director – Benjamin Kwasi Burrell
Movement Director – Jade Hackett
Fight and Intimacy Directors – Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown
Voice – Barbara Houseman
Casting Director – Matthew Dewsbury CDG
London Children’s Casting Director – Debbie O’Brien
Revival Director – Kwame Owusu

TITUS ANDRONICUS
By William Shakespeare
Hampstead Theatre
15 September to 11 October 2025