Titus Andronicus

Oh wow. I’m glad I read a comedy before reading this one… Tarantino and Greenaway have nothing on Shakespeare. Patrick and Jim both warned me that this was probably Shakespeare’s most violent play, so I was prepared, but yeah, wow.

So it’s all about revenge. Titus, like Coriolanus, is a hero for his country, but is soon betrayed by it. Sorrow upon sorrow is heaped on him. Revenge, he needs. Revenge, he gets. But not without a price, of course… this is a tragedy, after all, and we all know how tragedies go.

I’m a little nervous about watching a performance of this (if there is one recorded), I have to say. Violence isn’t really my thing. But I’ll deal. It’s my plan and I intend to follow through with it.

UPDATE 2013-03-30 11:27: There is a recorded performance… starring Anthony Hopkins… “quid pro quo.”

A little note: I’m taking a break from Shakespeare to read White Teeth* by Zadie Smith for The Civil Life Brewing Company’s Civil Reading Group.