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Titus Andronicus is Shakepeare’s first tragedy, although in fact, scholars believe that Shakespeare did not write the whole play himself. An older playwirght named George Peele may have authored part or all of the first act, and possibly more in the last act. Whatever its origins, the play is notorious for its graphic horror, which includes multiple killings, amputations, decapitations, rape and cannibalism. Horrors that have overwhelmed audiences and alienated critics for centuries. When the play was performed at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London in 2006 the theatre reported that at every performance several people fainted at the gruesome representations on stage.

Although the play was hugely popular in Shakespeare’s time, later critics such as Samuel Johnson dismissed “the barbarity of the spectacles”, the Victorians naturally disapproved of it, and even in the 20th century, T.S. Eliot wrote that Titus Andronicus was “one of the stupidest and one of the most uninspired plays ever written.”

However, the play’s bleak portrait of amoral leadership, sexual violence, racial conflict, and personal and political despair has struck a chord in more recent times, with several prominent revivals and restored critical opinion. As we record this episode an exciting new production of the play is on stage at the Hampstead theatre in London, having transferred following its acclaimed run at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. The production is directed by Max Webster, who I am delighted to say joins me in this episoce to explore Shakespeare’s full-blooded tragedy.

Max was a previous guest of the podcast when he joined me to talk about Oscar Wilde’s camp classic The Importance of Being Earnest:
090 The Importance of Being Earnest

The Footnotes that accompany our episode on William Shakespeare’s bloody tragedy, Titus Andronicus, include notes on the original published texts of the play; the “wilderness of tigers” that is Rome; racism in the character of Aaron and his relationship with Tamora; and Lavinia’s awful fate.

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Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is arguably the most famous romantic comedy in theatrical history. The play is renowned for its effervescent portrait of aristocratic romance, and its impossibly clever wit, including some of the most quotable lines in dramatic literature. But it is also an anarchic parody of social custom and pretension – a serious statement of aesthetic principles and coded sexual politics. The play was written just months before the scandal and trials that would destroy Wilde’s reputation and life. It was first performed at the St James’ theatre in London in February 1895, and Wilde himself said of the play with characteristic modesty, “the first act is ingenious, the second beautiful, the third abominably clever.”

This is our first Wilde play on the podcast, and we start with his last and greatest. As we record this episode a joyous new production of the play is currently running at the National Theatre in London. With its ravishing visual design, its self-conscious knowingness, its championing of an uninhibited lifestyle, and the frank fore-fronting of the play’s sexual resonances, this is a modern rendition that Wilde himself would have loved.

So I am hugely fortunate and delighted to be joined to review this classic of English drama by the production’s director, Max Webster.

The Footnotes that accompany our episode on Oscar Wilde’s trivial comedy for serious people, The Importance of Being Earnest, comprise some trivial notes on the source of Lady Bracknell’s name and the Brighton railway line, and some serious notes on the missing scene from the original draft of the play, and the trials of Oscar Wilde.