Qahar Aqilah in the titular role of Titus Andronicus. Photo Credit: Nick Augustin
(This blog post originated from KAYPOH. For the full article, please visit KAYPOH's website.)
Review by Dhinesha Karthigesu
SUMMARY: Titus Andronicus, the William Shakespeare play from the 1500s was recently staged by lowercase laboratories and directed by Low Yee Choy. The ensemble production was held at the Damansara Performing Arts Centre (DPAC) and ran from the 15th to the 18th of August 2024.
I always believe it is important for a reviewer to name their positionality when writing a review. To name their POVs before reviewing critically but also to acknowledge when they happen to have multiple relationships with the people whose show they are reviewing. The director of Titus Andronicus, Low Yee Choy and myself are friends and colleagues. We were both part of Theatresauce’s 2021 batch of the Emerging Directors Lab along with Mia Sabrina Mahadir, Dexter Zhen and Dinesh Kumar Maganathan (all of whom are part of this show’s ensemble and creative team). I also happen to be friends and colleagues with quite a few other members of the ensemble and creative team. I do also have to mention that while both our fathers have the same name, Tharanii Karthigesu and I are (sadly) actually not related. Now that that is out of the way, let's get on with the review.
Over the last few years, there has been a growing sentiment across the theatre world locally and internationally on whether there is still a need in this day and age to continue to stage the plays of William Shakespeare. On one side, people feel the bard should be let to rest so that new and original works can take the stage. To help centre new narratives and possibilities. On the other hand, many feel there is a universality to his work that can involve further reinvention and interrogation hence why restaging or readapting or even keeping it as is, has value. As I went in to watch Titus, I firmly sat in the former camp. Let the man rest in peace. It's time we make new work.
Titus Andronicus is at its core, a play about revenge and violence. Titus (played by Qahar Aqilah) having returned from a 10 year long battle is proclaimed the people’s choice to ascend the throne when the former Emperor dies. The Emperor's sons Saturninus (played by Phraveen Arikiah) and Bassianus (played by Alfred Loh) campaign for their right to the throne and Titus makes the choice to side Saturninus’s claim and crown him Emperor.
Titus Andronicus (Qahar Aqilah) and his beloved daughter Lavinia (Tharanii Karthigesu). Photo Credit: Nick Augustin
Titus offers his daughter Lavinia (played by Tharanii Karthigesu) for marriage to the new Emperor but discovers she has already been betrothed to Bassianus. Enraged, new Emperor Saturninus takes Tamora (played by Farah Rani) as his queen instead. Tamora swears vengeance on Titus and the Andronici family having recently been brought in as a slave of war and having had one of her sons sacrificed by Titus at the end of the war. Thus goes on this plot of revenge until blood (or in this case, pollen and flowers) rains from the heavens. Not literally of course because that was a different production from a different production company from years ago. IYKYK.
To depict the graphic violence and murder that is true to the Titus narrative, Director Low Yee Choy has chosen to lean into an artistic sensibility of flowers. Inspired by a Shakespeare Globe 2022 production of Titus that involved candles, all characters in this production are surrounded by floral arrangements of some kind in their costume. Working together with Floral Curator, Bee Shayne, the production gives every character a unique arrangement that almost feels like putting one’s heart on their sleeves. Death and pain can be wrought so easily on someone when a branch could be easily snapped off or a bouquet wrenched out of their chest. It's poetic and gruesome in the most queer of ways.
Emperor Saturninus (Phraveen Arikiah) and Queen Tamora (Farah Rani) and their florally arranged looks depicting their life force and personalities. Photo Credit: Nick Augustin
Titus is helped by a couple of key but powerful decisions by the Director and Creative Team. Mainly the artistic use of flowers as mentioned above, the strength of the ensemble and the editing down of the wieldy Shakespearean text. In conversation with the dramaturg Dinesh Kumar Maganathan, I found out that nearly 50% of the chunky Shakespearean text is edited down to make the nearly 2 hours run time of the show. Does it occasionally feel slow? Sometimes. But do you as an audience truly feel the 110 minutes? Not quite.
This is because Titus is built by an ensemble of actors each willing and able to pull their own weight in the narrative. Featuring a mix of theatre actors who have been in the scene for years and others who have just started in the last few years, the ensemble as a whole work very well together. Choy and team have also chosen to gender swap many roles in the production thus allowing for unique interpretations of the violence and gender based assault that is prominent in this play. By swapping the genders however, it is the women who truly shine and stand out in this production.
Tharanii Karthigesu as Lavinia does so much with so few lines. All one has to do is watch her facial expressions to truly comprehend the pain and hurt she is suffering. Marcia Andronicus (previously Marcus Andronicus) as played by Kamini Senthilathiban is a commanding familial presence within the Andronici family. The character is so Aunty coded in this performance that it's almost hard to believe the character was actually previously male in the original text. There is a scene halfway through the production that has haunted me for days since watching the show. It is a moment where the two women hold each other in grief and the guttural cries of pain are so primal you can’t help but feel deep down the suffering they are both experiencing.
Lavinia (Tharanii Karthigesu) and Marcia (Kamini Senthilathiban) in the aforementioned scene. Photo Credit: Nick Augustin
Farah Rani as Queen Tamora also truly gets to flex her acting and comedic prowess in this production. We get to witness her lying and scheming ways but also her attempt to play off her actual intentions when she shows up as a personification of Revenge. It is Farah’s world and we are just living in her machinations. The creative choice to pair off Dexter Zhen and Mia Sarah Shauki as her children Chiron and Demetria (formerly Demetrius) also adds something very interesting to the theatricality of the show. Both actors play off one another very well and share a physicality that feels befitting to this version of the play. A bestial animalistic tendency that adds to the floral aesthetics of the production. Fauna meets flora basically.
The work of this production is also felt in the delivery of most of the ensemble to focus on the intention of what they are saying over what is actually being said. Shakespeare’s original text and dialogue as performed in this version is cumbersome and archaic. It is reminiscent of a time we no longer live in, especially when words like “skibidi” and “rizz”......(Continue reading)
